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tihvaxy  of  Che  t:heolo;gical  ^tminary 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  BY 

John  Stuart  Conning,  D.D. 

BM  165  .B37  1918 

Barton,  George  A,  1859-1942 

The  religion  of  Israel 


VcliQions    Science    an&    literature    Series 

-—EDITED  BY ■ —  . 

E.   HERSHEY  SNEATH,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  Yale  University 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ISRAEL 


TIIE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO   •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •    SAN  FliANClSCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


THE 
RELIGION  OF  ISRAEL 


BY 

GEORGE  A.  BARTON,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

PROFESSOR  OF  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE  AND  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES 
IN  BRYN  MAWR  COLLEGE 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1918 

AU  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1918 
By  the   MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set   up    and    electrotyped.       Published,    September.    1918 


TO 

THE  MEMORY  OF 

FRANCIS  BROWN 

LATE  PRESIDENT  OF  UNION  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

HEBREW  LEXICOGRAPHER 

WHO  MADE  ALL 

STUDENTS  OF  HEBREW  HIS  DEBTORS 


PREFACE 

This  little  book  is  written  for  college  undergradu- 
ates, and  is,  accordingly,  not  a  systematic  treatise  on 
Old  Testament  Theology.  The  writer  has  had  consid- 
erable experience  in  teaching  both  graduate  and  under- 
graduate students  and  has  endeavoured  to  put  into  the 
following  pages  the  kind  of  information  in  which,  as 
he  has  learned,  college  undergraduates  take  an  interest, 
and  to  present  it  as  he  has  found  they  like  to  have  it 
presented.  He  has  found  that  the  undergraduate 
wishes  to  know  the  truth  as  fully  and  frankly  as  it  can 
be  known,  and,  while  he  has  not  always  the  disciplined 
patience  to  enjoy  the  details  which  the  more  mature 
student  must  master,  he  is  interested  in  watching  the 
development  of  great  movements  in  history,  and  in 
tracing  the  forces  that  shaped  them. 

In  the  following  pages  an  effort  is  made  to  present 
for  such  students  the  development  of  Israel's  religion 
from  Its  primitive  Semitic  beginnings  to  the  coming  of 
Christ.  Since  even  those  students  who  have  had  a 
course  in  the  literature  of  the  Old  Testament  seldom 
have  been  taught  how  to  use  the  earlier  books  from  the 
historical  point  of  view,  it  seemed  best  to  devote  a 
chapter  to  that  subject.     As  the  history  of  its  religion 


PREFACE 

involves  the  history  of  the  nation,  it  was  also  necessary 
to  treat  the  origin  of  Israel  in  the  light  of  our  latest 
information.  Having  disposed  of  these  topics,  the 
story  of  the  unfolding  of  the  religion  is  in  several  chap- 
ters traced  from  the  time  of  Moses  to  the  beginning  of 
the  Christian  era.  In  these  chapters  an  effort  is  made 
to  emphasize  the  spiritual  and  social  forces  that  were 
at  work,  to  let  the  great  creative  personalities  pass  be- 
fore the  mind,  and  to  follow  in  broad  outline  the  changes 
in  organization,  spiritual  vision,  and  ethical  practice. 
Two  chapters  are  then  devoted  to  topics  that  could  not 
well  be  treated  with  the  general  history,  but  which  are 
in  themselves  of  great  importance,  i.e.,  the  development 
of  the  priesthood,  and  the  belief  in  angels  and  demons. 
The  remaining  chapters  are  devoted  each  to  some  impor- 
tant phase  of  the  manifold  Jewish  religious  thought  and 
activity  in  the  centuries  after  the  exile. 

Many  students  have  testified  that  there  is  no  subject 
of  greater  intellectual  interest  than  the  Old  Testament, 
when  studied  from  the  historical  point  of  view.  It  is 
the  writer's  hope  that  in  reading  this  book  some  under- 
graduates may  find  their  interest  awakened  in  one  of 
the  most  fascinating  and  important  phases  of  human 
history. 

A  considerable  portion  of  chapter  II  formed  part  of 
an  article  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Philo- 
sophical Society,  and  much  of  the  material  of  chapters 
IV-VIII  appeared  in  a  series  of  articles  in  the  Biblical 
fVorld,  Vol.  XXXIX.     The  writer  hereby  expresses  his 


PREFACE 

thanks  to  the  American  Philosophical  Society  and  the 
University  of  Chicago  Press  for  permission  to  use  this 
material  here.  It  has  been  revised,  brought  up  to  date, 
and  adapted  to  its  present  use. 

As  the  writing  of  this  book  neared  completion  In  June, 
19 1 6  (Its  printing  has  been  delayed  by  conditions  pro- 
duced by  the  great  war) ,  the  writer  requested  the  late 
Francis  Brown,  President  of  Union  Theological  Sem- 
inary, to  permit  the  book  to  be  dedicated  to  him,  In 
recognition  of  the  debt  under  which  President  Brown 
had  placed  all  students  of  Hebrew  by  the  production 
of  his  Hebrew  Lexicon.  In  a  letter  dated  June  27th, 
19 1 6,  President  Brown  granted  the  desired  permission, 
and  added:  "I  am  glad  and  grateful  if  the  Lexicon 
has  been  of  use  to  you.  I  could  make  a  much  better 
one  now,  and  perhaps  this  may  be  revised  sometime." 
In  speaking  of  his  health  President  Brown  added:  "  I 
am  really  much  better,  and  hope  to  go  to  work  In  the 
autumn,  though  I  shall  have  to  walk  softly  for  a  while." 
When  autumn  came.  Instead  of  returning  to  his  work 
he  passed  to  his  reward  on  October  15,  19 16. 

George  A.  Barton. 

Bryn  Mawr,  Pa. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  The  Semitic  Background i 

II  The  Value  of  the  Early  Biblical  Narratives  i8 

III  The  Origin  of  the  Israelitish  Nation     .      .  43 

IV  Moses  and  the  Covenant  with  Yahweh  .      .  56 
V  Pre-Prophetic  Period  in  Canaan     ....  75 

VI  The  Prophets  of  the  Eighth  Century     .      .  94 

VII  Deuteronomy  and  Jeremiah 114 

VIII  The  Exile  and  the  Reorganized  Jewish  State  127 

IX  Legalism 141 

X  Development  of  the  Priesthood  and  Ritual  158 

XI  Angels  and  Demons i73 

XII  The  Religion  of  the  Psalmists i95 

XIII  The  Religion  of  the  Sages 216 

XIV  Five  Religious  Tracts 235 

XV  The  Hopes  of  the  Apocalyptists     ....  248 

XVI  The  Jewish  Dispersion 263 


EDITOR'S  PROSPECTUS 

One  of  the  notable  developments  of  modern  scholar- 
ship is  an  increasing  interest  in  the  scientific  study  of 
religion.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  never  before  has  religion 
been  made  the  subject  of  such  careful  and  extended  in- 
vestigation as  during  the  last  two  decades.  History, 
anthropology,  psychology,  archaeology,  comparative  re- 
ligion, and  sociology  have  been  drawn  upon  to  aid  in 
the  determination  and  interpretation  of  the  facts  of  re- 
ligious experience;  —  each  of  them  making  a  substan- 
tial contribution  toward  this  important  end.  Indeed, 
during  this  period  a  new  science,  the  psychology  of  re- 
ligion, has  come  into  being,  and  already  a  compara- 
tively large  literature  on  this  subject  has  been  devel- 
oped. Philosophy,  also,  has  felt  the  impulse  of  this 
interest,  and,  in  the  more  speculative  fields  of  religious 
scholarship,  a  philosophy  of  religion  is  rapidly  supplant- 
ing dogmatic  theology  in  the  effort  to  furnish  an  ulti- 
mate interpretation  of  the  phenomena  of  religious  con- 
sciousness. Furthermore,  application  of  the  historical 
method  to  the  study  of  Old  and  New  Testament  Liter- 
ature has  contributed  toward  a  much  better  understand- 
ing of  the  Bible,  and  to  a  more  intelligent  appreciation, 
and  a  higher  valuation,  of  the  Christian  religion. 


editor's  prospectus 

Further  Interest  in  religion  is  manifest  In  the  wide- 
spread movement  in  behalf  of  systematic  religious  edu- 
cation. Biology,  genetic  and  child  psychology,  the 
psychology  of  adolescence,  and  experimental  pedagogy, 
are  rendering  valuable  aid  in  the  organization  and  appli- 
cation of  curricula  in  this  important  field.  Thus  far 
elementary  and  secondary  religious  education  has  re- 
ceived more  attention  than  religious  education  In  the 
college.  The  time  seems  ripe  for  more  adequate  edu- 
cation in  this  field  in  colleges  and  universities.  For 
this  purpose  a  special  literature  in  the  history,  psy- 
chology and  philosophy  of  religion,  and  in  Old  and 
New  Testament  Interpretation  is  necessary.  The  "  Re- 
ligious Science  and  Literature  Series  "  Is  specially  de- 
signed to  meet  this  need.  Each  book  of  the  Series  is 
written  by  a  well-known  specialist,  and  Is  prepared  with 
reference  to  class-room  work.  The  Series  includes  the 
following  volumes: 

The  History  of  Religion  (Ready) 

E.  Washburn  Hopkins,  Ph.D.,  LL.D., 

Professor  of  Sanskrit  and  Comparative  Philology,  Yale  University 

Psychology  of  Religion  (In  preparation) 

Luther  A.  Weigle,  Ph.D., 

Professor  of  Christian   Nurture,  Yale  University 

Philosophy  of  Religion  (In  preparation) 

Douglas  Clyde  Macintosh,  Ph.D., 

Professor  of  Theology,  Yale  University 

History  and  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament  (In  preparation) 

Charles  Cutler  Torrey,  Ph.D.,  D.D., 
Professor  of  Semitic  Languages,  Yale  University 


editor's  prospectus 

History  of  the  Religion  of  Israel  (Ready) 

George  A.  Barton,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

Professor  of  Biblical  Literature  and  Semitic  Languages,  Bryn  Mawr 
College 

History  and  Literature  of  the  New  Testament  (In  preparation) 

Henry  Thatcher  Fowler,  Ph.D., 

Professor  of  Biblical  Literature  and  History,  Brown  University 

Life  and  Teachings  of  Jesus  (In  preparation) 

Edward  Increase  Bosworth,  D.D., 

Professor  of  New  Testament  Language  and  Literature,  and  Dean  of 
Oberlin  Seminary 

A  Book  About  the  English  Bible  (In  press) 

Josiah  H.  Penniman,  Ph.D.,  LL.D., 

Professor    of    English    Literature    and    Vice-Provost,    University    of 
Pennsylvania 

History  of  the  Christian  Religion  (In  preparation) 

John  Winthrop  Platner,  D.D., 

Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History,  Andover  Theological  Seminary 

The  author  of  "  History  of  the  Religion  of  Israel," 
Professor  George  A.  Barton,  Is  professor  of  Biblical 
Literature  and  Semitic  Languages  in  Bryn  Mawr  Col- 
lege. His  recognized  scholarship,  and  large  experience 
as  a  teacher  In  this  branch  of  learning,  eminently  qualify 
him  for  writing  a  book  of  this  character. 

E.  Hershey  Sneath. 
Yale  University. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ISRAEL 

CHAPTER  I 

THE    SEMITIC    BACKGROUND 

Evolution  and  Revelation  —  The  Hebrew  Semites  —  Semites  lived  in 
Arabia  —  Were  Animistic  —  Semitic  Social  Organization  —  Deities 
connected  with  Springs  —  Deities  of  Fertility  —  Pillars  and  Asheras 
—  Circumcision  —  Animal  Sacrifice  —  The  Passover  —  The  Autumn 
Festival  —  Law  of  Revenge  —  The  Ban  —  Ecstatic  Prophecy  —  Re- 
ligion a  Body  of  Ceremonies. 

Religion  may  be  viewed  from  either  the  human  or  the 
divine  point  of  view.  From  the  divine  standpoint  God 
reveals  truth;  from  the  human,  man  discovers  it.  Even 
a  superficial  study  of  the  history  of  religion  makes  it 
clear  that  there  has  been  in  the  course  of  the  centuries  an 
advance  in  the  apprehension  of  truth  and  in  the  grasp 
of  moral  and  religious  ideals.  Viewed  from  the  divine 
side  revelation  has  been  progressive;  looked  at  from  the 
human,  it  has  been  evolutionary.  He  who  speaks  of  the 
evolution  of  religion  does  not  thereby  deny  the  divine 
element,  nor  he  who  speaks  of  revelation,  the  human 
factor.  If,  then,  in  the  following  pages  we  seek  to 
trace  the  evolution  of  the  religion  of  Israel,  we  shall 
be  but  treating  In  the  favourite  phraseology  of  the  time 
the  progress  of  revelation  in  Israel. 

The  Hebrews  were  one  of  the  Semitic  peoples.     The 


2  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

evolution  of  their  religion  took  place,  accordingly,  upon 
soil  prepared  by  the  religious  conceptions  of  the  primi- 
tive Semites.  In  order  either  to  trace  the  evolution  or 
to  estimate  the  permanent  significance  of  the  religious 
message  of  the  Old  Testament  it  is  necessary  to  glance 
at  the  Semitic  background  of  Israel's  religion.  Israel 
was  a  Semitic  people,  and  without  some  knowledge  of 
her  Semitic  inheritance  one  can  not  discriminate  between 
the  ancestral  and  the  original  in  her  religious  institutions 
and  customs,  nor  so  easily  separate  the  eternal  from  the 
transitory  in  the  Old  Testament. 

The  Semitic  nations  known  to  history  were  the 
Babylonians,  Assyrians,  Aramaeans,  Phoenicians,  He- 
brews, Edomites,  Moabites,  Ammonites,  Carthagenians, 
Arabs,  and  Abyssinians.  While  a  non-Semitic  people, 
the  Sumerians,  contributed  much  to  Babylonian  civiliza- 
tion, that  civilization  was  on  the  whole  Semitic.  The 
languages  of  these  Semitic  nations  are  closely  akin  to 
one  another.  Their  resemblances  often  remind  the 
student  of  the  kinship  between  the  modern  derivatives  of 
Latin  —  French,  Italian,  and  Spanish. 

A  close  kinship  also  existed  between  the  Semitic  peo- 
ples and  the  peoples  called  Hamitic, —  the  Egyptians, 
Berbers,  and  the  tribes  of  Somaliland.  This  kinship  Is 
attested  by  linguistic  affinities,  and  of  It  there  can  be 
no  doubt.  How  this  kinship  came  about  is  differently 
interpreted  by  different  scholars.  Egyptologists  such  as 
Erman  and  Breasted  hold  that  it  came  about  In  conse- 
quence of  a  large  infiltration  of  Semites  into  Egypt  at 


THE  SEMITIC   BACKGROUND  3 

an  early  time.  Such  a  migration  of  Semites  into  Egypt 
from  Asia  has  long  seemed  to  the  writer  an  Inadequate 
explanation  of  the  phenomena,^  for  the  similarities  are 
not  confined  to  the  ancient  Egyptian  language,  but  run 
through  the  Berber  dialects  which  are  spoken  through 
the  whole  of  North  Africa  to  the  Atlantic,  and  through 
the  dialects  of  Somaliland,  which  are  also  spoken  to  the 
present  day.  These  fundamental  likenesses  indicate 
that  at  a  remote  epoch  the  Semites  and  the  Hamltes 
were  one  stock. 

This  kinship  to  the  Hamltes  does  not,  however,  con- 
cern us  here.  The  point  which  Is  of  interest  to  our  sub- 
ject is  that  the  Semites,  even  If  at  some  very  remote 
period  they  had  migrated  from  North  Africa,  lived  for 
a  long  time  (so  many  scholars  now  believe^)  in  the 
desolate  peninsula  of  Arabia,  and  little  by  little,  as  they 
became  too  numerous  for  that  barren  country  to  sup- 
port, spilled  over  Into  the  more  fertile  lands  to  the 
northeast,  north,  and  northwest  of  Arabia  (not  to  men- 
tion Abyssinia  to  the  southwest),  thus  forming  In  time 
the  various  Semitic  nations  catalogued  above.  Even 
If  the  beginnings  of  the  fundamental  Semitic  institu- 
tions had  their  birth  In  North  Africa,  they  were  brought 
to  their  perfection  through  long  residence  In  Arabia. 
As  several  of  these  fundamental  Institutions  existed 
for  a  long  time  in  Israel,  and  some  of  them  are  per- 

1  See  the  writer's  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  New  York,  1902,  pp.  9-12. 

2  For    different    theories,    see   the    writer's   Sketch    of   Semitic    Origins, 
New  York,  1902,  Ch.  I. 


4  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

petuated  by  the  Jews  to  the  present  time,  a  brief  glance 
at  the  most  important  of  them  will  help  to  clearness  of 
thought  in  seeking  for  that  which  is  vital  in  the  religious 
message  of  Israel. 

Like  all  people  at  a  similar  stage  of  evolution,  the 
ancient  Semites  thought  that  every  place,  tree,  rock, 
spring,  etc.,  had  its  spirit,  or  was  inhabited  by  a  spirit. 
Out  of  these  spirits  the  Semitic  deities  were  in  time 
developed.  It  thus  happened  that  all  Semitic  deities 
were  regarded  as  fixed  to  certain  localities, —  an  idea  that 
was  only  slowly  outgrown.  Thus  Yahweh,  the  God  of 
Israel,  was  first  thought  to  dwell  at  Horeb  ( i  Kgs. 
19:  8  f.),  and  later  in  the  temple  on  Zion  at  Jerusalem 
(Isa.  31:  4,  5,  and  9).  It  took  a  long  experience  of 
pain  to  teach  one  of  the  later  psalmists  the  great  lesson 
of  the  omnipresence  of  God  (Ps.  139:7-16). 

Arabia,  a  land  a  thousand  miles  long,  with  an  aver- 
age width  of  six  hundred  miles,  is  one  of  the  most  barren 
countries  in  the  world.  Desolate  mountains  of  igneous 
rock  are  separated  by  broad,  elevated,  unwatered  plains, 
which  produce  only  a  few  hardy,  thorny  shrubs.  In 
parts,  as  in  the  region  called  the  Nafud,  the  gravel  of 
these  plains  gives  place  to  sand  which  drifts  like  snow. 
There  is  almost  no  rainfall,  and  rivers  are  unknown. 
The  only  fertile  spots  occur  at  those  rare  intervals 
where,  through  the  volcanic  action  of  remote  ages,  a 
rift  in  the  rocks  conducts  water  from  unknown,  far- 
away sources  to  the  surface  of  the  ground  and  forms  a 
spring.     Irrigation   from   this   spring  produces   in  that 


THE  SEMITIC   BACKGROUND  5 

subtropical  climate  an  abundant  vegetation.  As  one 
wanders  across  the  desolate  sun-burned  spaces  which 
constitute  the  larger  part  of  Arabia,  the  contrast  of  the 
cooling  waters  and  refreshing  shade  of  these  oases  be- 
comes unspeakably  impressive. 

It  was  this  contrast,  combined  with  the  grim  strug- 
gle for  existence  in  such  a  country  that  gave  to  the  early 
Semite  his  conception  of  deity.  One  can  easily  under- 
stand how,  in  such  an  environment,  the  spirit  of  an  oasis, 
—  a  spirit  which  could  produce  such  refreshing  waters, 
such  cooling  shade,  such  delicious  fruits,  and  sustain- 
ing crops, —  would  become  to  him  a  beneficent  deity.  It 
is  not  strange  that  in  such  an  environment  fertility, — 
the  power  to  give  life,  both  vegetable  and  animal, — 
should  seem  to  the  Semite  the  divlnest  of  all  powers. 
It  was  natural,  therefore,  that  practically  all  Semitic 
deities  were  thought  to  be  closely  connected  with  hfe 
processes,  and  to  be  especially  Interested  in  fertility  and 
reproduction. 

The  social  organization  of  the  early  Semitic  tribes  in 
Arabia  was  matriarchal,^  and  religious  conceptions,  the 
world  over,  are  expressed  in  the  terms  of  the  social  and 
political  organization  of  a  people's  life.  People  do  not 
call  their  god  a  king  until  they  have  a  king  as  a  part 
of  their  political  economy,  nor  do  they  call  him  a  father, 
where  fatherhood  is  not  a  prominent  feature  of  their 
social  organization. 

1  See  W.   R.   Smith's  Kinship  and  Marriage  in  Early  Arabia,  2   ed., 
London,  1903;  and  the  writer's  Semitic  Origins,  New  York,  1902,  Ch.  II. 


6  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

It  Is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  the  early  Semites 
regarded  the  principal  deity  of  each  oasis  as  a  goddess, 
and  the  next  important  deity  as  her  son.  The  god- 
dess appears  to  have  been  the  spirit  of  the  spring  which 
gave  the  oasis  Its  fertility,  and  was  consequently  thought 
to  reside  In  the  spring;  the  son  appears  to  have  been 
regarded  as  the  spirit  of  the  vegetation,  or  more  specific- 
ally, of  the  palm-trees  which  grew  near  the  spring. 
They  called  the  mother  goddess  by  a  name  which  is 
found  among  all  the  Semitic  nations  known  to  history. 
It  appears  among  the  Babylonians  as  Ishtar;  among  the 
Phoenicians  as  Ashtart.  It  was  called  by  the  Greeks 
Astarte,  and  perverted  by  later  Hebrews  to  Ashtoreth. 
It  apparently  meant  "  the  Self-waterer."  ^  We  do  not 
know  the  primitive  name  of  the  goddess's  son.  In 
Babylonia  he  was  called  Dumuzl  (corrupted  In  Hebrew 
to  Tammuz),  which  meant  "Son  of  life."  Naturally 
these  deities  were  thought  to  feel  and  act  as  the  barbar- 
ous men  and  women  of  that  early  stage  of  development 
felt  and  acted. 

It  was  natural  that.  In  a  religion  which  originated 
In  such  an  environment,  certain  springs,  trees,  and  rocks 
should  be  considered  sacred,  for  they  were  the  residences 
of  deities  or  spirits.  It  was  also  natural  that,  when 
Semites  settled  In  lands  watered  by  rivers,  these  rivers 
should  be  considered  sacred  too.  Thus  In  the  code  of 
laws  promulgated  by  the  Babylonian  king,  Hammurapi, 

^  See    the    Journal    of    the    American    Oriental   Society,    vol.    xxxi,    p. 
355   f- 


THE  SEMITIC  BACKGROUND  7 

the  river  is  several  times  regarded  as  a  god,  and  in 
II  Kgs.  5  :  IO-I2  it  is  implied  that  divine  qualities  were 
thought  to  belong  both  to  the  river  Jordan  and  to  the 
two  rivers  at  Damascus. 

As  deities  of  fertility  the  Ishtars  and  Tammuzes  were 
thought  to  approve  of  the  sexual  relations  which  existed 
in  primitive  Semitic  society;  indeed,  they  were  thought 
to  be   especially  anxious  to  encourage   those   relations. 
Among  all  early  peoples  it  has  been  thought  that  acts 
that  occur,  as  we  say,  by  chance  are  especially  directed 
by  a  god.     As  these  primitive  deities  were  thought  to 
be  especially  interested  in  fertility,  it  was  customary  to 
leave  the  selection  of  a  partner  to  the  first  sexual  act 
in  the  life  of  a  woman  to  chance,  in  order  to  secure  to 
her  the  blessings  of  the  mother  goddess.     This  custom 
survived  among  several  of  the   Semitic  nations   down 
to  late  times.     An  outgrowth  of  this  custom,  which  arose 
after  the  establishment  of  priesthoods,  was  the  conse- 
cration of  men  and  women  to  represent  this  function  of 
the  deity.^     These  men  and  women  were -not  prostitutes 
in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term.     The  purpose  of  their 
existence  seems  to  have  been  to  secure  fertility  to  those 
men  and  women  who  were  barren.     The  institution  was 
not  begotten  by  immoral  tendencies;   it   simply  repre- 
sented a  very  primitive  point  of  view.     Doubtless  at 
times  it  was  put  to  uses  that  were  more  sensual  than 
religious,  but  such  was  not  its  original  purpose.     This 

1  See  the  article  "  Hierodouloi,"  in  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion 
and  Ethics,  New  York,  1908,  Vol.  VI. 


8  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

Institution  was  known  In  Israel  as  among  the  other  na- 
tions, and  was  not  eradicated  until  the  reform  of  Joslah 
In  621  B.  c.  (II  Kgs.  23:  7). 

Closely  connected  with  these  conceptions  of  fertility 
were  the  pillars  and  asheras  which  stood  beside  Semitic 
altars.  The  pillars  were  rude  stones  which  roughly  rep- 
resented a  phallus,  the  asheras  represented  In  different 
ways  at  different  times  the  physical  gateway  of  life. 
These,  too,  survived  at  the  altars  of  Yahweh  In  Israel 
until  the  reform  of  Joslah  (II  Kgs.  23:  7,  15). 

Somewhat  akin  to  the  pillars  just  mentioned  were 
circles  of  stones  arranged  In  a  perpendicular  position. 
These  were  called  by  the  Hebrews  Gilgals.  Such  circles 
may  still  be  seen  In  the  land  beyond  Jordan,  and  are  no 
doubt  of  pre-hlstoric  origin.  What  the  exact  signifi- 
cance of  these  circles  was  we  cannot  now  divine.  The 
enclosure  within  them  was  rendered  sacred,  and  Is  ap- 
parently still  so  regarded  by  the  trans-jordanic  nomads.^ 
These  Gilgals  Israel  took  over,  and  In  time  some  of 
them  were  explained  by  traditions  of  their  own.  Thus 
one  In  the  Jordan  valley  was  regarded  as  having  been 
made  of  stones  taken  from  the  bottom  of  the  Jordan 
at  the  time  of  the  Hebrew  crossing  (Josh.  4:  20). 

A  part  of  this  primitive  cult  was  the  rite  of  circumci- 
sion. This  rite  can  no  longer  be  regarded  as  the  peculiar 
possession  of  the  Hebrew  people,  though  It  was  inter- 
preted by  Jews  as  the  special  sign  of  Yahweh's  covenant 
with  them    (Gen.    17:  1-15).     In  reality  It  Is  a  most 

iSee  Biblical  World,  XXIV,  p.   177. 


THE   SEMITIC   BACKGROUND  9 

primitive  institution;  it  originated  so  early  that  it  was 
practised  by  Egyptians  as  well  as  by  Semites.  Egyp- 
tian reliefs  made  prior  to  2500  B.  c.  portray  the  opera- 
tion, while  the  examination  of  many  mummies  proves 
that  it  was  practised.  It  would  seem  to  have  originated 
at  a  time  when  the  Hamites  and  Semites  were  still  one 
stock.  The  rite  was  performed  on  both  men  and 
w^omen.  Scholars  are  in  doubt  as  to  the  original  pur- 
pose of  circumcision.  Some  hold  that  it  was  intended 
to  be  an  offering  of  a  part  of  the  body  as  a  sacrifice  to 
the  deity  in  lieu  of  the  whole;  others,  that  it  was  in- 
tended as  a  consecration  of  the  organs  of  reproduction 
to  the  deity,  intended  to  secure  from  the  goddess  the 
blessing  of  fertility;  ^  still  others  that  it  was  intended  as 
a  mere  physical  convenience.  It  seems  to  the  writer 
that  the  second  motive  mentioned  is  more  likely  to  be 
the  correct  one. 

Whatever  the  motive  may  have  been,  the  antiquity 
of  the  origin  of  circumcision  and  its  widespread  prac- 
tice outside  of  Israel  are  now  beyond  doubt.  It  Is  one 
of  those  institutions  which  the  chosen  people  inherited 
from  their  Semitic  ancestry.  As  so  often  happens  In 
religious  history  this  rite  underwent  a  new  Interpreta- 
tion at  their  hands;  It  lost  Its  primitive  significance,  and 
became  the  symbol  of  their  choice  by  Yahweh.     Under 

1  See  the  article  "  Circumcision "  In  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of  Re- 
ligion and  Ethics,  New  York,  1908,  Vol.  III. 

Toy,  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religion,  New  York,  19 13,  p.  72, 
thinks  that  probably  at  first  circumcision  had  no  religious  significance 
whatever. 


lO  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

prophetic  influence  circumcision  became  the  "  outward 
and  visible  sign  of  an  inward  and  spiritual  grace,"  for 
Deut.  30:  6  speaks  of  a  circumcision  of  the  heart,  which 
should  enable  Israel  to  love  Yahweh  with  all  the  heart.^ 
The  Apostle  Paul  carried  this  further  and  discarded 
the  outward  rite,  holding  that  he  who  had  the  inner 
experience  did  not  need  the  outward  sign  ( Rom.  2  :  28  f. ; 
Col.  2:  11).  All  this  does  not  alter  the  fact  of  the 
pre-Israelitish  origin  of  the  rite,  which  was  slowly  spirit- 
ualized by  Israel,  and  which,  though  discarded  for  a 
spiritual  reality  by  Paul,  is  still  practised  by  Israelites. 
Another  institution  closely  connected  with  circumcision 
was  animal  sacrifice.^  Animal  sacrifice  is  peculiar  to 
no  nation  or  race.  All  people  have,  at  a  certain  stage 
of  mental  development,  practised  it.  It  can  be  traced 
among  the  ancestors  of  the  philosophically  minded  in- 
habitants of  India  and  Greece  as  well  as  among  the  less 
philosophical  Egyptians  and  Semites.  It  is  based  on 
two  conceptions:  i,  that  the  gods  are  corporeal  beings 
and  need  food;  2,  that  in  disposition  they  are  like  men, 
and  are  irritable  and  savage  when  hungry,  but  more 
mercifully  inclined  when  the  pangs  of  appetite  are  satis- 
fied. Every  nation  which  has  advanced  to  a  high  men- 
tal and  religious  plane  has  had  a  struggle  to  throw  off 
this  point  of  view.     The  method  adopted  to  rationalize 

1  See  for  similar  treatment  of  it,  Jer.  4:4,  and  Lev.  26:41. 

2  Animal  sacrifice  included  human  sacrifice.  This  was  practised  by 
the  Hebrews,  at  least  sporadically,  until  a  late  time,  as  the  sacrifice  of 
Jephthah's  daughter  (Jud.  11:34-40)  and  the  sacrifice  of  children  in 
the  reign  of  Manasseh  prove   (II  Kings  21:6;  Jer.  32:35). 


THE  SEMITIC  BACKGROUND  II 

sacrifices  In  India  may  still  be  traced  in  the  literature 
of  that  country.^ 

Some  scholars  hold  that  among  the  Semites  sacrifice 
was  commensal,  that  is,  that  its  essential  feature  was  a 
meal  of  which  the  worshipper  partook  and  of  which  the 
god  was  supposed  to  partake.  The  food,  according  to 
this  view,  became  a  material  bond  between  the  wor- 
shipper and  the  deity.^  Others  hold  that  the  essential 
feature  of  the  sacrifice  in  this  primitive  time  was  the 
bursting  forth  of  the  blood.^  The  deities  were  thought 
to  be  barbarous  and  unfeeling.  When  they  were  of- 
fended they,  Hke  the  human  beings  of  the  time,  could 
only  be  appeased  by  a  bloody  offering.  Perhaps  both 
elements  entered  into  the  conception.  Men  have,  the 
world  over,  misunderstood  God.  They  have  thought 
him  hard  and  cruel, —  a  being  who  demanded  blood, — 
one  who  could  be  moved  as  men  can  be  moved  by  ap- 
pealing to  appetite  or  the  lust  for  vengeance.  They 
have  thought  of  God  as  altogether  like  to  themselves.* 

Such  animal  sacrifice  Israel  inherited  from  her  Semitic 
ancestry,  and  with  conscientious  reverence  perpetuated. 
Prophets  protested,^  but  ancient  ideas  were  too  strong  to 
yield.     The  law  of  Deuteronomy,  which  limited  sacrifice 

1  See  Bloomfield,  Religion  of  the  Veda,  New  York,  1908,  p.  33  f.  and 
215  f. 

2  See  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2  ed.,  London,  1894,  Chs. 
VI-IX. 

3  S.  I.  Curtis,  Primitive  Semitic  Religion  Today,  New  York,  1902,  pp. 
216-228. 

'*Ps.  50:21. 

5  Amos  5 :  21-25. 


12  THE  RELIGION  OF  ISRAEL 

to  one  place,  reduced  it  to  a  minimum,  but  continued 
the  theory  that  It  was  necessary.  In  course  of  time,  be- 
cause of  the  limitation  of  the  Deuteronomic  law,  the 
synagogue  developed  a  worship  without  sacrifice,  but 
Judaism  ever  regarded  this  as  worship  of  a  lower  plane 
than  that  of  the  temple.  The  destruction  of  the  temple 
in  70  A.  D.  brought  Jewish  sacrifices  to  an  end,  but  to 
this  day  Orthodox  Judaism  looks  to  their  restoration.  If 
the  temple  at  Jerusalem  Is  ever  restored.  It  was  left 
for  Christianity  to  develop  a  theory  of  religion  In  which 
animal  sacrifice   has  no  place. 

Another  inheritance  which  was  in  reality  a  part  of 
animal  sacrifice,  was  the  Institution  of  the  passover. 
This  feast,  as  celebrated  in  Israel,  was  a  reinterpreta- 
tlon  of  the  primitive  Semitic  festival  of  the  yeaning 
time,  at  which  some  of  the  gifts  of  the  goddess  of 
fertility  were  returned  to  her  In  the  form  of  sacrifices.^ 
Perhaps  In  early  times  the  sacrifices  of  the  yeaning  time 
consisted  of  first-born  animals  and  Included  the  first- 
born of  men  as  well.  At  all  events  it  was  long  regarded 
as  a  religious  obligation  to  offer  the  first-born  in  sacrifice 
to  Yahweh.  Later  It  was  considered  right  to  substitute 
a  lamb  for  the  first-born  of  men  and  asses.  To  justify 
the  substitution  In  the  case  of  human  beings,  the  story 
was  told  that  Abraham  w^as  directed  from  heaven  to 
make  such  a  substitution.^  This  story  Is  not  really  the 
story  of  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac,  as  It  is  often  called,  but 

1  See  Barton,  A  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  New  York,  1902,  pp.  108- 
III. 

2  See  Genesis  22. 


THE  SEMITIC   BACKGROUND  1 3 

the  story  of  the  rescue  of  Isaac  from  this  barbarous 
fate. 

From  the  early  Semitic  time  there  descended  along 
with  the  passover  another  festival  that  was  celebrated 
in  the  autumn.  Among  the  oasis  dwellers  this  festival 
was  celebrated  at  the  time  of  the  date  harvest  at  the 
end  of  summer.^  After  the  Hebrews  settled  in  Canaan, 
where  the  grape  harvest  was  a  prominent  agricultural 
fact,  while  the  date  harvest  was  a  negligible  quantity, 
the  feast  was  reinterpreted  as  a  celebration  of  the  in- 
gathering of  the  grapes.^  The  wailing  which  had  pre- 
ceded the  festival,  and  which  had  been  in  the  wilderness 
period  expressive  of  the  death  of  Tammuz  or  of  vegeta- 
tion in  the  fierce  summer  heat,  was  also  given  a  new 
interpretation  and  was  made  a  wailing  for  sin.  Mem- 
ory of  the  origin  of  the  festival  in  the  conditions  of  the 
previous  nomadic  life  was  kept  alive  by  the  custom  of 
living  in  booths  or  tents  during  the  week  of  the  feast.^ 

In  the  unsettled  life  of  the  Semitic  nomad  there  was 
no  regularly  constituted  authority  or  any  code  of  laws. 
Such  sheiks  or  chieftains  as  they  had  were  local  or  tribal 
leaders,  possessing  only  such  authority  as  their  fellow 
tribesmen  chose  to  give  them,  and  no  means  of  enforcing 
their  authority  except  the  public  opinion  of  the  tribe. 
Through  long  centuries  of  such  life  there  gradually  grew 
up  certain  principles  of  rough  and  ready  justice  which 

1  Barton,  .4  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  New  York,  1902,  pp.  111-115. 
2Deut.  16:13. 
3  Lev.  23  :  34,  40. 


14  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

received  the  sanction  of  all,  and  which  were  in  time 
thought  to  have  divine  sanction.  These  principles  were 
embodied  In  the  lex  talionis  or  unwritten  laws  of  retalia- 
tion. According  to  this  unwritten  law,  If  a  man  knocked 
out  another's  eye,  his  eye  must  be  knocked  out.  If  he 
knocked  out  another's  tooth,  his  tooth  must  be  knocked 
out.  If  he  Injured  another's  hand,  a  corresponding  in- 
jury must  be  Inflicted  upon  his  hand.  If  he  killed  an- 
other, he  himself  must  be  put  to  death.  It  became  the 
sacred  duty  of  the  one  next  of  kin  to  the  slain  man  to 
avenge  the  blood  of  his  kinsman.  Wherever  Semites 
went  they  carried  deeply  Ingrained  in  their  customs  this 
law.  In  the  code  of  Hammurapl,  which  comes  from 
Babylonia,  a  majority  of  the  penalties  Imposed  are  but 
detailed  applications  of  this  principle,  and  the  principle 
with  all  the  force  of  a  divine  law  prevails  among  the 
nomadic  Arabs  until  the  present  time. 

Every  reader  of  the  Old  Testament  is  aware  that  this 
principle  Is  enshrined  in  the  laws  of  the  Pentateuch,^  but 
probably  few  realize  to  what  an  extent  It  was  thought  to 
have  back  of  It  the  authority  of  Israel's  God.  The  story 
told  in  2  Sam.  21 :  1-14,  which  Is  treated  below,  p.  82, 
is  an  Interesting  revelation  of  the  way  in  which  this  law 
was  regarded.  Yahweh  was  thought  to  have  sent  a 
famine  of  three  years'  duration  upon  the  whole  land 
because  the  bloody  penalties,  which  this  law  demanded, 
had  not  been  exacted,  and  was  only  appeased  by  a 
ghastly  conformity  to  the  law,  which  makes  a  modern 

1  See  Deut.  19: 19. 


THE  SEMITIC  BACKGROUND  1 5 

reader  shudder.  It  Is  one  of  the  gains  that  scientific 
study  brings  us  that  we  no  longer  think  of  this  law  as 
really  given  by  the  one  God,  but  as  a  barbarous  inherit- 
ance from  Israel's  Semitic  forebears. 

Another  barbarous  Semitic  custom  which  was  per- 
petuated for  a  time  In  Israel  was  the  herem  or  ban.  The 
word  Is  sometimes  translated  In  the  Revised  Version 
"devoted,"  as  in  Josh.  6:  17,  18,  and  sometimes  "ut- 
terly destroy"  as  In  Josh.  6:21  and  i  Sam.  15:3,  8. 
The  custom  represented  by  this  word  was  In  brief  this: 
when  for  any  reason  the  hatred  of  a  people  towards 
an  enemy  had  been  fanned  to  a  white  heat,  those  en- 
tertaining the  hatred,  thinking  that  their  god  shared  their 
feelings,  vowed,  if  they  could  conquer  the  hated  ones,  to 
utterly  destroy  them  as  an  act  of  service  to  their  own 
god.  When  once  such  a  vow  had  been  taken,  all  sacred 
associations  compelled  those  taking  it  to  execute  It.  A 
massacre  thus  became  a  religious  duty,  and  wholesale 
murder  a  divine  service.  This,  too,  was  an  ancestral 
custom,  which  the  better  spirit  of  Israel  finally  sloughed 
off. 

Still  another  Institution  which  Israel  shared  with  her 
Semitic  neighbours  was  ecstatic  prophecy.  The  Idea  that 
epileptics  and  those  whose  nervous  constitutions  are  so 
delicate  that  they  are  easily  thrown  off  their  balance  are 
possessed  of  spirits  either  good  or  bad  has  been  widely 
prevalent  among  mankind.^     If  the  spirit  by  which  the 

1  See  Davenport,  Primitive  Traits  in  Religious  Revivals,  New  York, 
1905. 


l6  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

patient  is  possessed  Is  thought  to  be  a  good  one,  the 
utterances  of  the  patient  are  regarded  as  an  oracle. 
Such  a  prophet  was  found  at  the  court  of  a  king  of  the 
Phoenician  city  of  Gebal  ^  about  iioo  B.  c,  and,  If  we 
had  fuller  records,  It  would  probably  be  found  that  they 
existed  In  other  parts  of  the  Semitic  world.  Israel's 
early  prophets  were  of  this  sort.  Such  was  the  company 
of  people  whom  King  Saul  In  his  early  life  joined,  and 
such  was  the  prophet  Into  which  he  for  a  while  turned.^ 
Even  Ellsha,  at  a  later  time,  employed  music  to  Induce 
such  an  ecstasy  so  that  he  could  give  an  oracle.^ 

Fortunately  for  us  and  for  the  world  such  prophecy 
was  displaced  In  Israel  by  something  better.  Ecstasy 
gave  place  In  the  great  literary  prophets  to  vision, —  to 
that  spiritual  sight  which  God  sometimes  gives  to  con- 
secrated souls,  when  with  wills  dedicated,  hearts  aflame, 
and  all  their  mental  powers  alert  and  active,  they  address 
themselves  to  the  deepest  problems  of  life. 

It  should  also  be  noted  that  the  early  Hebrews  shared 
with  their  Semitic  kinsmen  the  view  that  religion  con- 
sisted of  a  body  of  ceremonies  to  be  gone  through  with, 
rather  than  a  body  of  beliefs  to  be  accepted.  The 
world  was  thought  to  be  full  of  supernatural  powers  of 
which  man  stood  In  awe.  If  one  did  not  behave  toward 
these  powers  as  the  powers  themselves  thought  proper, 
in  anger  they  might  blast  one's  life.     Just  as  one  must 

1  See  Breasted,  Ancient  Records,  Egypt,  IV,  Chicago,  1906,  p.  280. 

2  I  Sam.  19:  20-24. 
8  11  Kgs.  3:15. 


THE  SEMITIC   BACKGROUND  1 7 

observe  a  polite  etiquette  In  approaching  a  powerful 
man,  so  the  ceremonies  of  religion  were  the  proper  man- 
ners to  be  observed  In  one's  relationship  with  the  gods. 
So  long,  then,  as  the  right  practices  were  carried  out,  one 
might  believe  what  he  wished.  Connected  with  different 
gods  were  various  myths  that  had  grown  up  to  explain 
their  actions  or  their  nature.  These  myths  one  could 
accept  or  reject.  If  only  his  outward  conduct  was  Irre- 
proachable. At  first,  accordingly,  religion  consisted  of 
a  body  of  ceremonies. 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  Semitic  Conceptions  of  Deity;  cf.  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion 
of  the  Semites,  2  ed,  London,  1894,  Lecture  II;  G.  A.  Barton, 
A  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  New  York,  1902,  ch.  iii ;  Hastings, 
Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  New  York,  1908,  Vol.  VI, 
pp.  247-252 ;  Toy,  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religion,  New 
York,  1913,  §§  751-764. 

2.  Are  there  Traces  of  Totemism  among  the  Semites?  Cf.  W. 
R.  Smith,  Kinship  and  Marriage  in  Early  Arabia,  2  ed.,  London, 
1903;  Jacobs,  Studies  in  Biblical  Archaeology,  London,  1894;  G. 
A.  Barton,  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  New  York,  1902,  p.  33  ff. ; 
Toy,  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religion,  §§  422-580. 

3.  The  Meaning  of  Sacrifice  among  the  Semites;  cf.  W.  R. 
Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  Lectures  vi-xi,  especially  Lecture 
viii ;  S.  I.  Curtis,  Primitive  Semitic  Religion  Today,  New  York, 
1903,  ch.  xiii. 

4.  The  Semitic  Law  of  Blood-Revenge;  cf.  W.  R.  Smith, 
Kinship  and  Marriage  in  Early  Arabia,  pp.  25-27,  41-56,  Re- 
ligion of  the  Semites,  passim,  "  Blood-feud  (Semitic)  "  in  Hast- 
ings, Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  III,  731  fE. ;  G.  A. 
Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  Philadelphia,  19 16,  Part  II, 
ch.  xiii. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    VALUE    OF   THE    EARLY    BIBLICAL    NARRATIVES 

Expansion  of  Modern  Knowledge  —  Comparatively  Late  Date  of  Early 
Biblical  Documents  —  the  Historical  Clue  in  Genesis  lo  —  Jacob's 
Marriages  —  Joseph  —  Story  of  Potiphar's  Wife  —  Joseph  as  Ruler 
of  Egypt  —  Joseph  and  the  Famine  —  Judah  —  Simeon  and  Levi  — 
Asher  —  Jacob  —  Abraham  and  Babylonian  Documents  —  the  Na- 
ture of  the  History  in  the  Narratives. 

Since  the  birth  of  the  sciences  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
knowledge  has  been  revolutionized  and  enlarged  In 
every  department.  The  effect  of  the  creation  of  the 
historical  and  social  sciences  Is  as  marked  In  this  respect 
as  that  of  the  natural  sciences.  The  account  which  the 
records  and  traditions  of  a  country  give  of  its  history 
Is  found  to  begin  with  mythical  stories,  which  gradually 
give  place  to  legends  and  later  emerge  into  sober  history 
attested  by  documents,  which,  if  not  contemporary,  date 
from  a  time  so  near  to  the  events,  that  their  testimony, 
when  tested  by  general  considerations,  may  be  accepted. 
The  scientific  method  applied  to  ordinary  history  Is  gen- 
erally accepted  quietly  by  the  public,  which  is  usually 
grateful  for  the  clearer  vision  of  past  events  which  it 
affords. 

It  has  been  Inevitable,  that  in  the  general  progress  of 
knowledge  the  scientific  method  should  be  applied  to  all 
existing  records,  sacred  as  well  as  to  so-called  profane. 

i8 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE  BIBLICAL  NARRATIVES      1 9 

A  part  of  the  movement  of  modern  knowledge  consists, 
accordingly,  of  the  application  of  the  scientific  method, 
generally  known  as  the  higher  criticism,  to  the  records 
in  the  Bible.  The  application  of  this  method  has  re- 
sulted in  the  division  of  scholars  into  three  camps:  (i) 
there  are  the  sincere,  conscientious,  open-minded,  rev- 
erent scholars,  who  believe  in  the  scientific  method,  who 
see  that  the  Biblical  records  cannot  be  rightly  exempted 
from  scientific  treatment,  and  who  go  about  the  work 
with  reverence  and  sanity;  (2)  there  are  the  reactiona- 
ries, who  are  unable  to  believe  that  any  Biblical  narra- 
tive can  ever  have  had  any  other  significance  than  that 
which  they  have  always  attached  to  it,  and  who  spend 
their  efforts  endeavouring  to  prove,  often  by  the  flimsiest 
arguments  from  supposed  archaeology,  that  every  Bibli- 
cal narrative  must  be  taken  by  the  historian  at  its  face 
value;  (3)  there  is  the  mythological,  or  pseudo-scientific 
school,  which  has  become  enamoured  of  the  scientific 
method  from  afar,  but  has  never  undergone  the  train- 
ing in  judgment  necessary  to  the  application  of  scientific 
principles.  The  members  of  this  school  fall  into  two 
groups.  There  are  those  who,  like  Winckler,  dissolve 
Solomon  and  everything  before  him  into  forms  of  Bab- 
ylonian myths,  while  others,  like  Jensen  and  Zimmern, 
resolve  most  of  the  Biblical  characters  Into  myths. 
Under  Jensen's  touch  every  Important  character  of  the 
Old  Testament  and  Apocrypha,  as  well  as  Jesus  and 
Paul,  become  simply  forms  of  the  myths  of  the  Gilga- 
mesh  epic.     In  view  of  the  division  of  scholarship  Into 


20  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

these  three  camps,  It  Is  clear  that  a  scientific  student  of 
history  must  take  his  stand  with  the  first  group.  He 
cannot  refuse  to  use  the  scientific  method  upon  sources 
simply  because  they  are  sacred,  nor  can  he  exercise  the 
liberty  of  dissolving  into  myth  events  attested  by  docu- 
ments that  are  nearly  contemporary  with  the  events 
described. 

The  application  of  the  scientific  method  to  the  Bible 
has  made  it  evident  that,  apart  from  a  few  poems  such 
as  the  song  of  Deborah  In  Judges,  chap.  5,  we  have  no 
Hebrew  literature  from  a  date  earlier  than  the  ninth 
century  B.  c.  Broadly  speaking,  Hebrew  literature  be- 
gins with  the  prophetic  documents  of  the  Pentateuch  J 
and  E  which  were  written  in  the  ninth  and  eighth  cen- 
turies B.  c,  and  similarly  early  strata  In  the  Books  of 
Judges  and  Samuel.  As  these  writings  are  prophetic  In 
tone,  and  as  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy  (which  Is  pro- 
phetic in  tone)  Is  demonstrably  from  the  seventh  century 
B.  c,  while  the  great  body  of  Levitical  laws  and  priestly 
narratives  are  generally  recognized  as  from  the  fifth 
century  B.  c.  It  Is  now  clear  that,  broadly  speaking, 
the  prophets  were  anterior  to  the  law.  Although  there 
may  be  pre-exillc  psalms  in  the  Psalter,  the  collection  as 
a  whole  was  the  hymn-book  of  the  second  temple,  and 
such  pre-exllic  material  as  was  embodied  In  It  was  re- 
edited  to  suit  the  changed  conditions  and  sentiments  of 
the  post-exilic  time.  The  beautiful  piety  and  spiritual 
aspirations  of  the  noblest  parts  of  the  Psalter  can,  there- 
fore, no  longer  be  attributed  to  David.     All  this  sets 


THE  VALUE   OF   THE   BIBLICAL   NARRATIVES      21 

the  development  of  Israel's  religion  in  new  perspective. 
This  is  not  the  place  to  dwell  in  detail  upon  these  literary 
facts  and  problems,  though  in  the  discussion  which  fol- 
lows they  will  be  presupposed.  The  reader  who  is  un- 
familiar with  them  is  referred  to  one  of  the  several  ex- 
cellent "  Introductions  "  ^  to  the  Old  Testament.  It  is 
clear  that  there  was  an  evolution  in  Israel's  religion  far 
more  real  than  was  formerly  supposed. 

The  material  in  the  Books  of  Judges,  Samuel,  and 
Kings  embodies  the  historical  traditions  of  the  life  of 
Israel  in  Canaan.  These  traditions  have  apparently  in 
a  few  instances  been  heightened  by  mythical  influences. 
Such,  at  least,  seems  to  be  the  case  with  the  stories  of 
Samson.  When  we  come  to  the  stories  of  the  earlier 
time,  however,  we  are  moving  on  less  certain  ground. 
How  are  we  to  estimate  the  value  of  the  stories  of  the 
patriarchs  in  Genesis;  of  the  giving  of  the  law  at  Sinai; 
of  the  conquest  of  Canaan  in  the  Book  of  Joshua?  In 
entering  upon  this  task  it  is  convenient  at  first  to  classify 
the  sources  from  which  the  traditions  are  derived. 
Scholars  recognize  that  they  fall  into  four  groups,  i. 
There  are  traditions  which  Israel  brought  with  her  into 
Palestine.      Such  are  the  traditions  of  the  Exodus  from 

1  Such  as  C.  C.  Torrey,  The  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament,  New 
York,  in  preparation;  S.  R.  Driver,  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of 
the  Old  Testament,  New  York,  new  ed.,  1913;  C.  H.  Cornill,  Introduction 
to  the  Canonical  Books  of  the  Old  Testament,  New  York,  1907;  J.  E. 
McFayden,  Introduction  to  the  Old  Testament,  New  York,  1905; 
Gray,  Critical  Introduction  to  the  Old  Testament,  New  York,  1913; 
or  G.  F.  Moore,  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament,  New  York, 
1913- 


22  THE  RELIGION  OF  ISRAEL 

Egypt  and  the  covenant  at  Sinai.  2.  There  are  tradi- 
tions which  were  borrowed  from  the  Canaanites.  Such 
is  the  tradition  of  the  origin  of  the  Dead  Sea  in  Gen. 
18,  19;  such  also  are  the  traditions  connected  with  the 
various  shrines,  such  as  that  the  altar  at  Shechem  was 
built  by  Abraham  (Gen.  12:7),  and  that  Jacob  set  up 
the  pillar  at  Bethel  (Gen.  28).  3.  There  are  traditions 
that  were  developed  by  the  Israelites  in  Palestine.  Such 
is  the  account  of  the  marriages  of  Judah  and  his  sons  in 
Gen.  38.  4.  There  are  traditions  that  were  borrowed 
from  Babylonia  and  adapted  to  the  religion  of  Israel. 
Such  were  the  accounts  of  the  creation  in  Gen.  i,  2,  and 
of  the  flood  in  Gen.  6-9.  The  appraisal  of  the  value 
of  some  of  these  will  be  dealt  with  at  a  later  point.  At 
present  attention  will  be  directed  to  the  historical  value 
of  the  narratives  in  Genesis  concerning  the  patriarchs. 
The  historical  student  finds,  perhaps,  his  most  difficult 
task  the  proper  estimation  of  the  patriarchal  narratives. 
Scientific  criticism  has  shown  that  the  records  of  these 
narratives  have  been  drawn  verbatim  from  three  docu- 
ments, the  earliest  of  which  dates  from  the  ninth  century 
B.  C,  and  the  latest  from  the  middle  of  the  fifth  pre- 
Christian  century.  These  are  the  J  document,  written 
900-800  B.  c,  the  E  document,  dating  from  about  750, 
B.  c,  and  the  P  document,  dating  from  about  450  B.  C. 
The  demonstration  of  this  is  so  convincing  that  it  has 
won  the  consent  of  nearly  all  the  scientific  experts.  But 
let  him  follow  the  sound  historical  maxim  and  prefer 
the  testimony  of  the  earliest  document,  he  is  still  in  per- 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE  BIBLICAL   NARRATIVES      23 

plexlty,  for  the  oldest  document,  the  so-called  J  docu- 
ment, is  at  least  three  hundred  years  later  than  Moses. 
It  is  as  far  removed  from  Moses  as  the  translators  of 
the  Authorized  Version  are  from  us,  and  further  re- 
moved from  Abraham  than  we  are  from  Columbus  and 
Martin  Luther. 

The  historian  may  obtain  a  clue  to  guide  him  in  his 
perplexity  from  a  study  of  Genesis,  ch.  10.  For  exam- 
ple. Gen.  10:  6  states  that  the  sons  of  Ham  were  Cush, 
Mizraim,  Put  and  Canaan.  Cush  here  is  the  Egyptian 
Kesh,  or  Nubia.  Mizraim  Is  simply  the  Hebrew  word 
for  Egypt.  Put  is  the  Punt  which  figures  so  largely  in 
Egyptian  history  —  the  country  to  the  far  south  whence 
so  many  expeditions  were  sent  and  from  which  myrrh, 
ivory  and  pigmies  were  brought.^  Canaan  is  the  well- 
known  tribe  or  group  of  tribes  from  which  the  Phoeni- 
cians were  developed,  which  also  inhabited  Palestine  and 
gave  it  one  of  the  names  by  which  it  is  still  called.  It  is 
clear  that  these  names  represent,  not  individuals,  but 
personified  tribes  or  nations.  Take  Egypt,  for  example. 
We  now  have  the  outlines  of  its  history  back  to  about 
5000  B.  c.  At  that  time  it  consisted  of  forty-two  dis- 
tinct tribes,  who  lived  so  long  in  separation  from  one 
another  that  their  animal  totems  persisted  as  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  gods  of  the  different  nomes  down  to 
the  Roman  period.  Perhaps  as  early  as  4000  B.  c.  these 
nomes,  often  at  war  with  one  another,  had  been  united 

1  See  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  2  ed.,  New  York,  1909,  pp.  127,  140, 
142,  and  passim. 


24  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

into  the  two  kingdoms  of  upper  and  lower  Egypt,  but 
these  were  not  united  into  a  single  monarchy  until  the 
time  of  Mena,  about  3400  B.  c.  It  is  simply  impossible 
that  these  forty-two  tribes  were  descended  from  one 
man.  Their  gods,  customs,  sacred  animals,  and  war- 
like emblems  were  all  different.  The  farther  back  we 
push  our  knowledge  of  Egypt,  the  more  its  constituent 
parts  ramify  into  a  congeries  of  unrelated  atoms.  It  is 
only  from  the  point  of  view  of  later  times  that  it  can 
be  spoken  of  as  one  entity.  The  Biblical  writer  has  ac- 
cordingly personified  a  nation.  What  can  be  proved  for 
Egypt  can  also  be  proved  in  lesser  degree  for  Nubia. 
If  now  other  parts  of  the  chapter  be  explored  the 
names  of  many  nations  and  countries  appear.  Gomer 
(v.  2)  is  the  Gamir  of  the  Assyrians,  the  Cimmerians 
of  the  Greeks ;  Madai  is  the  Medes ;  Tubal  and  Meshech, 
the  tribes  Taball  and  Mushkl  of  the  Assyrian  inscrip- 
tions. Javan  is  the  ''  Ion ''  of  the  word  lonians. 
Elisha  (v.  4)  is  the  Alashia  of  the  El-Amarna  letters, 
or  the  Island  of  Cyprus;  Kittim,  the  Kiti  or  Kition,  on 
that  island.  Tarshish  is  Tartessos,  the  Phoenician 
mining  and  trading  camp  in  Spain.  Similarly  in  v. 
22  Elam,  Asshur  and  Aram  are  clearly  the  names  of 
well  known  countries.  In  v.  26  most  of  the  persons 
mentioned  are  known  to  be  tribes  or  towns  in  south 
Arabia.  In  v.  15  it  is  stated  that  Canaan  begat  Zidon. 
Zidon  is  the  city.  Its  name  means  "  fishing."  The 
name  was  not  derived  from  a  man,  but  from  an  in- 
dustry. 


THE  VALUE  OF   THE   BIBLICAL   NARRATIVES      25 

We  derive  from  this  chapter,  then,  partly  composed 
of  J  material  (ninth  century)  and  P  material  (fifth 
century)  the  general  principle  that  patriarchal  names 
are  probably  not  personal  names,  but  are  personified 
tribes,  nations,  or  places.  This  Is  In  accord  with  modern 
Arabian  custom.  The  Arabs  make  alliances  with  other 
tribes  under  the  fiction  of  kinship,  and  then  to  justify 
the  supposed  kinship  trace  their  descent  from  a  com- 
mon ancestor.^  In  combining  the  personifications  of 
two  documentary  sources  in  Genesis  10  confusion  has, 
in  at  least  one  case,  resulted.  To  the  J  writer  (v.  8) 
the  Cush  who  begat  Nimrod  was  the  Kash  of  the  Bab- 
ylonian inscription,  /.  e.,  the  Kassites  or  Cossaeans,  who, 
entering  Babylonia  from  the  East,  conquered  it  about 
1750  B.  c.  and  established  a  dynasty  that  ruled  for 
576  years.  To  the  P  writer  of  v.  6  Cush  was  Nubia, 
as  already  pointed  out.  The  combination  of  these 
narratives  by  a  later  editor  has  made  the  two  Cushes 
appear  to  be  the  same,  so  that  some  Interpreters,  not 
recognizing  the  difference,  feel  compelled  to  claim  that 
the  Assyrians  are  descended  from  a  Hamltic  race.^ 

We  are,  then,  on  safe  historical  ground.  If  we  assume 
that  at  least  a  part  of  the  patriarchal  narratives  con- 
sists of  tribal  history  narrated  as  the  experiences  of 
individual  men.     To  assume  that  all  patriarchal  story 

1  Cf.  Sprenger,  Geographie  Arabiens,  Berlin,  1875,  and  Lectures  and 
Essays  of  W.  Robertson  Smith,  London,  19 12,  p,  461.  The  position  set 
forth  in  the  text  is  not  new.     Many  scholars  have  taken  it. 

2  See  Kyle,  The  Deciding  Voice  of  the  Monuments  in  Biblical  Criti- 
cism, Oberlin,  1912,  p.  196. 


26  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

is  tribal  history,  would  be  to  create  for  ourselves  new 
difficulties.  When  once  a  man,  or  a  supposed  man, 
has  caught  the  popular  Imagination,  tradition  frequently 
attaches  to  his  name  stories,  which  were  originally  told 
of  others.  This  could.  If  It  were  necessary,  be  Illus- 
trated by  many  examples,  some  of  which  will  be  men- 
tioned below. 

In  applying  the  principle  of  interpretation  drawn 
from  Genesis,  ch.  lo.  It  Is  convenient  to  begin  with  the 
narratives  connected  with  the  twelve  sons  of  Jacob. 
These  correspond  to  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel,  and 
are  probably  simply  personifications  of  those  tribes. 
These  sons  are  divided  by  the  narratives  Into  four 
groups,  which  are  said  to  be  respectively  the  offspring 
of  four  mothers.  It  Is  natural  to  suppose  that.  If 
these  narratives  represent  tribal  history,  that  there 
was  an  alliance  between  the  tribes  which  composed 
each  group  before  the  groups  themselves  were  formed 
Into  a  union.  Two  of  the  groups  are  said  to  be  the 
offspring  of  full  wives  of  Jacob.  These  probably 
joined  In  an  alliance  with  each  other  earlier  than  the 
two  groups  which  are  said  to  be  descended  from  Jacob's 
concubines.  In  Jacob's  marriages,  then,  and  the  stories 
of  the  birth  of  his  children  we  probably  have  an  out- 
line of  the  history  of  the  formation  of  the  confederacy 
of  the  twelve  Israelitish  tribes.  The  nucleus  of  this 
confederacy  was  the  tribes  which  counted  their  descent 
from  Leah,  viz. :  Reuben,  Simeon,  Levi,  Judah,  Issachar, 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE  BIBLICAL   NARRATIVES      27 

Zebulon.  These  were  the  original  tribes  of  Israel. 
Later  were  born  the  sons  of  Rachel;  i.  e.,  the  Rachel 
tribes  came  Into  the  confederacy  after  the  other  six 
existed  as  a  definite  group.  The  name  Leah  means 
wild-cow;  the  name  Rachel,  ewe.^  It  has  accordingly 
been  suggested  that  these  were  simply  the  animal  sym- 
bols of  the  tribes,  and  that  the  Leah  tribes  were  cow 
boys  and  the  Rachel  tribes  sheep  raisers.  Others  hold 
that  they  were  not  economic,  but  totemlstic,  symbols. 
Whichever  alternative  Is  adopted,  the  Interpretation  of 
Leah  and  Rachel  which  makes  them  the  symbols  of 
the  Intertribal  alliances  Is  most  probable.  The  appli- 
cation of  the  name  Joseph  to  two  of  these  tribes,  for 
reasons  which  will  be  mentioned  later,  was  probably 
not  made  until  after  the  settlement  In  Palestine.  Again 
the  tribe  of  Benjamin  was  not  differentiated  from  the 
other  Rachel  tribes  until  after  the  settlement  In 
Canaan.  Benjamin  originally  meant  "  sons  of  the 
south  "  or  "  southerners,"  and  was  given  them  because 
they  were  the  southernmost  of  the  Rachel  folk.  This 
southern  position  they  occupied  In  Palestine,  but  could 
hardly  have  held  as  a  nomadic  tribe.  The  tradition 
that  Benjamin  is  the  youngest  of  Jacob's  sons  is  a  recol- 
lection of  the  late  development  of  the  tribe. 

Similarly,  the  name  Joseph  seems  to  have  been  at- 
tached to  the  tribes  of  Ephraim  and  Manasseh  after 

1 W.    R.    Smith,    Kinship    and    Marriage    in    Early    Arabia,    2d    ed., 
London,  1903,  p.  254. 


28  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

the  settlement  in  Canaan.     The  name  itself  has  had  an 
interesting  history.     A   Babylonian  business   document 
of  the   time   of  the   first  dynasty   of  Babylon    (2225- 
1926  B.  c.)    had  for  one  of  its  witnesses   Yashiih-ilu,^ 
or   Joseph-el.     Thothmes    III,    who    conquered    Pales- 
tine and  Syria  between  1478  and  1447  B.  c,  records  as 
one    of    the    places    which    he    conquered    in    Palestine 
Wa-sha-f-ra,-  which  Eduard   Meyer  many  years   ago 
recognized  as  Joseph-el.     This  equivalence  is  doubted 
by  W.  Max  Miiller,  but  is,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  pos- 
sible.    How  did  the  name   of  a   Babylonian  man  be- 
come attached  to  a  Palestinian  city?     There  was  at  the 
time  of  the  first  dynasty  frequent  intercourse  between 
Mesopotamia    and    Palestine.     Documentary    evidence 
of  this  will  be  cited  below  in  connection  with  Abraham. 
Is  it  too  much  to  imagine  that  a  Joseph-el  migrated,  and 
that  his  name  became   attached  to   a   Palestinian  city? 
Not   only   have   we    in   our   own   country   many   places 
named  for  men,  but  modern  Palestine   affords  an  ex- 
ample of  a  village  that  lost  during  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury its   name,   Karyet  el-Ineb,   and  substituted   for   it 
the  name  of  a  famous  sheik,  Ahu  Ghosh.^     If  in  some 
such   way   Joseph-el   made   its   way   into    Palestine,   be- 

^  Cuneiform   Texts,  etc.,  in  the  British  Museum,  II,  no.  23,  1.  15. 

^  Mittheilung  der  Vorderasiatische  Gesellschaft,  1907,  p.  23.  MuUer 
thinks  it  equivalent  to  Yesheb-el,  "  God  dwells."  The  Babylonian 
might  also  be  so  interpreted.  The  phonetic  equivalence  between  Bab- 
ylonian and  Hebrew  points  rather  to  Joseph-el,  and  the  Babylonian  form 
may  account  for  the  Egyptian  spelling,  which  forms  the  basis  of  Miiller's 
doubt. 

3  See  Baedeker's  Paldstina,  Leipsig,  1910,  p.  i6. 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE   BIBLICAL   NARRATIVES      29 

coming  the  name  of  a  city  and  Rachel  tribes  afterward 
settled  In  the  region,  the  shortened  form  of  the  name, 
Joseph,  might  naturally  become  the  name  of  their  sup- 
posed ancestor. 

The  principle  of  Interpretation  gained  from  Genesis 
10  compels  us  to  suppose  that  the  name  Joseph  came 
In  In  some  such  way,  for  In  the  historical  period  no  tribe 
of  Joseph  appears.  If  the  Investigator  Is  forced  to  this 
conclusion,  how  are  the  vivid  narratives  of  the  personal 
fortunes  of  Joseph  to  be  accounted  for? 

The  archaeological  discoveries  of  recent  years  have 
made  It  probable  that  the  Joseph  tribes  alone  were  con- 
cerned In  the  Egyptian  residence  and  bondage.^  The 
stele  of  Merneptah,^  to  whom  all  Biblical  Indications 
point  as  the  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus,  clearly  shows 
that  Israel,  or  the  Leah  tribes,  were  already  In  Pales- 
tine. The  fact  that  the  Ephralmlte  document,  E,  re- 
calls as  the  Judaean  document  J  does  not,  the  revelation 
of  the  name  Yahweh,'^  and  that  the  ark  of  the  covenant 
was  afterward  preserved  In  an  Ephralmlte  shrine,^ 
point  In  the  same  direction.  If  these  tribes  alone  had 
the  Egyptian  experience  and  were  at  first  the  sole  guard- 
ians of  the  Egyptian  tradition,  when  once  they  had 
come  to  regard  Joseph  as  their  ancestor  It  would  be 
natural  for  many  stories  to  cluster  about  his  name.      In 

1  See  Paton's  article,  "  Israel's  Conquest  of  Canaan,"  Journal  of 
Biblical   Literature,   XXXII,   pp.    1-54,    and    ch.    iii,    below. 

2  See  Breasted's  Ancient  Records,  Egypt,  Chicago,  1906,  III,  §  617. 

3  Ex.  3  :  13,  14. 

^  I  Sam.  3  and  4. 


30  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

this  connection  it  is  an  interesting  fact  that  several 
of  the  stories  told  of  Joseph  are  almost  identical  with 
other  stories  and  facts  which  archaeological  research 
has  brought  to  light,  but  which  in  their  original  set- 
ting are  connected  with  other  names.  The  chief  of 
these  are  the  following: 

(i)  The  story  of  Joseph's  temptation  by  Potiphar's 
wife  is  strikingly  parallel  to  the  tale  of  two  brothers  — 
a  tale  In  which  the  younger  brother  is  subjected  by  his 
sister-in-law  to  the  same  temptation  as  Joseph,  and, 
when,  like  Joseph,  he  repulses  her,  she  professes  to 
have  been  outraged  by  him,  and  plunges  him  Into  mis- 
fortune. This  story  comes  to  us  in  a  papyrus  dated 
In  the  reign  of  Seti  II,  1 209-1 205  B.  c,  and  is  accord- 
ingly very  old. 

(2)  The  career  of  Joseph  as  ruler  of  Egypt  is 
paralleled  by  the  career  of  Dudu  or  David,  an  official 
bearing  a  Semitic  name,  who  seems  to  have  held  a  high 
position  under  Amenophls  IV  of  the  eighteenth 
Egyptian  dynasty,  before  1350  B.  c.  In  the  El- 
Amarna  correspondence  ^  two  letters  addressed  to  this 
Dudu  by  Aziru,  king  of  the  Amorltes,  occur. 

In  these  letters  Aziru  constantly  classes  Dudu  with 
the  king.  He  fears  to  offend  Dudu  as  he  fears  to 
offend  the  king.  The  words  of  Dudu  he  counts  as  of 
equal  importance  to  those  of  the  king.      Dudu  clearly 

1  That  is,  some  letters  dug  up  at  Tell-el-Amarna  in  Egypt  during  the 
winter  of  1887-1888.  The  letters  were  written  between  1410  and 
1350  B.  C. 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE  BIBLICAL  NARRATIVES      3 1 

occupied  a  position  of  power  with  the  king  similar  to 
that  ascribed  to  Joseph  in  Genesis.^ 

(3).  The  action  of  Joseph  in  storing  up  corn  and 
then  distributing  It  during  a  time  of  famine  is  paralleled 
by  the  course  of  Baba  of  El-Kab,  who  flourished  under 
the  elghteeth  dynasty  of  Egypt  about  1500  B.C.,  and 
who  says  in  an  inscription  carved  in  his  tomb,  at  the 
close  of  a  description  of  the  activities  of  his  life : 

"  I  collected  corn  as  a  friend  of  the  harvest-god.  I  was  watch- 
ful in  time  of  sowing.  And  when  a  famine  arose,  lasting  many 
years,  I  distributed  corn  to  the  city  each  year  of  the  famine."  ^ 

The  principal  features  of  Joseph's  life  are  thus 
paralleled  in  ancient  history.  The  careers  of  Baba 
and  Dudu  are  thoroughly  historical;  our  knowledge  of 
them  rests  upon  contemporary  documents.  While  the 
latter  part  of  the  tale  of  the  two  brothers  contains  much 
that  is  mythical,  the  portion  which  deals  with  the 
brother's  wife  is  so  natural,  and  presents  such  a  vivid 
picture  of  Egyptian  rural  life,  that  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  it  is  based  on  a  real  incident. 

When  once  a  name  has  become  prominent  in  a 
nation  it  tends,  by  a  law  of  human  nature,  to  gather  to 
itself  all  the  appropriate  stories  known.  One  heard  at 
Harvard  a  generation  ago  stories  told  of  the  late  Pro- 
fessor Andrew  P.  Peabody,  which  a  generation  before 
had  been  told  in  Germany  of  the  absent-minded  Pro- 
fessor Neander.     Before   our   eyes   today   stories   are 

1  For  this  material  parallel  to  Joseph  see  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology 
and  the  Bible,  Philadelphia,  1916,  Part  II,  ch.  x. 


32  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

attaching  themselves  to  Colonel  Roosevelt  which  orig- 
inally were  told  of  others.  It  is  not  too  much  to  sup- 
pose that  the  stories  known  to  us  from  the  sources 
quoted  attached  themselves  to  the  name  of  Joseph,  and 
thus  filled  out  to  the  later  Israelites  the  figure  of  their 
shadowy  patriarch.  This  supposition,  confirmed  by 
historical  and  legendary  analogies,  enables  us  to  find  in 
the  Joseph  stories  real  history.  It  is  not,  it  must  be 
confessed,  the  history  of  a  real  Hebrew  patriarch,  but 
it  is  real  history  of  Egypt  and  Palestine  and  of  real  men 
in  them.  The  history  is  recovered,  too,  by  following 
historical  methods  and  historical  analogies,  and  relieves 
us  from  the  necessity  of  supposing  with  Winckler  that 
Joseph  is  but  a  series  of  Tammuz  myths,  or  with  Jensen, 
that  he  is  a  group  of  Gilgamesh  myths. 

Our  pursuit  of  the  origin  of  the  Joseph-stories  has 
taken  us  far  afield  from  the  discussion  of  the  tribal 
history  of  the  patriarchs.  The  accounts  of  the  mar- 
riages of  the  sons  of  Judah  and  of  an  episode  In  the 
life  of  Judah  himself  in  Genesis  38  may  easily  be  under- 
stood to  be  alliances  made  by  that  tribe  with  clans  pre- 
viously living  in  their  territory.  Judah  in  all  the  sub- 
sequent history  stood  apart  from  the  other  Hebrew 
tribes.  That  she  formed  in  David's  early  reign  and 
after  the  time  of  Solomon  a  separate  kingdom  was  in 
part  due  to  the  larger  element  of  Canaanlte  blood  in 
her. 

Similarly  the  story  in  Genesis  34  of  Simeon  and  Levi  ^ 

1  The  story  appears  in  two  forms;   one  is  by  J  and  the  other  by  a 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE   BIBLICAL   NARRATIVES      33 

represents  an  unsuccessful  and  treacherous  attack  of 
those  tribes  on  the  ancient  city.  In  this  attack  they 
were  practically  annihilated  and  their  kinsmen  regarded 
their  punishment  as  just.^  According  to  the  view  that 
the  patriarchal  stories  are  adumbrations  of  tribal  his- 
tory, the  traditions  which  ascribe  the  birth  of  the 
patriarchs  Gad,  Asher,  Dan  and  Naphtali  to  slave 
mothers  may  indicate  that  these  tribes  joined  the  Israel- 
itish  confederacy  later  than  the  union  between  the  two 
great  groups  of  Leah  and  Rachel  tribes.  If  this  were 
the  case,  these  tribes  probably  came  into  the  confed- 
eracy after  the  settlement  in  Palestine,  and  were,  pre- 
sumably, Amorite  or  Canaanite  tribes  who  were  there 
already.  In  the  case  of  the  tribe  of  Asher  this  sup- 
position receives  some  confirmation  from  documents  out- 
side the  Old  Testament. 

The  father  of  Aziru,  the  Amorite,  who  wrote  the  let- 
ters to  Dudu  quoted  above,  was  named  Ebed-Ashera, 
Ashera  being  a  goddess.  Ebed-Ashera  in  his  time  was 
in  frequent  war  with  Gebal,  whose  king,  Rib-Adda,  com- 
plained to  the  king  of  Egypt  in  many  letters  pre- 
served for  us  in  the  El-Amarna  correspondence.  Rib- 
Adda  sometimes  calls  the  people  over  whom  Ebed- 
Ashera  ruled  Amorites  (Amurru),  sometimes  the  *'  men 

priestly  writer.  In  the  former  Shechem  appears  on  one  side  and 
Simeon  and  Levi  on  the  other;  Shechem  violates  Dinah  and  the  brothers 
take  terrible  vengeance  upon  him.  In  the  latter  Hamor,  the  father  of 
Shechem  proposes  honourable  marriage  for  his  son  with  Dinah,  and  all 
the  sons  of  Jacob  are  represented  as  acting  as  one  man.  Cf.  Carpenter 
and  Harford-Battersby,  Hexateuch,  London,  1900,  p.  52  ff. 
iGen.   49:5-7. 


34  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

of  Ebed-Ashera  "  and  often  the  "  sons  of  Ebed- 
Ashera."  It  would  be  easy  In  course  of  time  for  the 
Ebed  to  drop  out  and  the  tribe  to  be  called  "  sons  of 
Ashera  "  or  "  sons  of  Asher."  ^  As  this  tribe  in  the 
period  covered  by  the  El-Amarna  correspondence 
(1400-1350  B.  c.)  was  in  the  same  region  in  which  the 
Hebrew  tribe  of  Asher  was  afterward  settled,  it  seems 
probable  that  the  Hebrew  tribe  was  the  same  as  the 
earlier  Amorite  tribe.  This  would  fit  in  well  with  the 
conclusion  to  which  the  tribal  interpretation  of  Jacob's 
marriage  points. 

When  the  investigation  moves  back  a  generation  in 
the  patriarchal  genealogies,  the  same  principle  holds, 
but  new  perplexities  appear.  It  is  clear  that  Esau  is 
the  personification  of  the  Edomite  nation,  and  Israel 
that  of  the  nucleus  of  the  Hebrews.  Already  in  the 
time  of  Merneptah  there  was  an  Israel,  which  was  a 
nation.  Probably  it  consisted  of  the  Leah  tribes.  But 
the  Hebrew  patriarch  is  also  called  Jacob,  and  most 
of  the  stories  concerning  him  are  told  of  him  as  Jacob. 
There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  name  Jacob  had 
an  origin  similar  to  the  name  Joseph. 

In  the  reign  of  the  Babylonian  king,  Apil-Sin  (2161- 
2144  B.C.),  two  witnesses  to  a  contract,  Shubna-ilu 
and  Yadakh-ilu,  gave  the  name  of  their  father  as  Yakub- 
ilu  or  Jacob-el.2     ^  witness  to  another  contract  from 

iSee,  e.g.,  Schrader's  KeiVuischriftliche  Bibliothek,  Nos.  53,  54,  55, 
56,  57,  59,  60,  62,  63,  64,  68,  69,  70,  71,  73,  75,  76,  77,  78,  83,  84,  86,  88, 
91,  92,  101. 

2  Cuneiform  Texts,  etc.,  in  the  British  Museum,  IV,  33,  22b. 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE  BIBLICAL  NARRATIVES      35 

the  same  reign,  Lamaz,  had  a  Jacob-el  as  his  father.^ 
In  the  reign  of  the  next  king,  SIn-muballlt  (2 143-2 124 
B.C.),  a  witness  named  Nur-Shamash  was  the  son  of 
Yakub-ilu,  or  Jacob-el,-  while  another  witness,  Siner- 
blam,  gave  his  father's  name  simply  Yakub,  or  Jacob.^ 
Seven  hundred  years  later  Thothmes  III  records  among 
the  names  of  cities  which  he  conquered  In  Palestine  a 
city  Ya'ke-b'-ra,'^  the  Egyptian  equivalent  of  Jacob-el. 
The  probability  Is  that  some  Babylonian  who  bore  the 
name  migrated  to  the  west,  and  In  course  of  time  a 
city  was  named  for  him.  Later,  when  the  Hebrews  set- 
tled near  this  city,  they  took  over  the  name  of  Its  hero 
In  shortened  form  as  a  name  for  their  eponymous  an- 
cestor. All  the  reasons  quoted  above  for  the  name 
Joseph  apply  here.  Apart  from  stories  of  marriages 
and  friction  with  Esau,  which  denote  tribal  relations, 
the  one  Important  tale  connected  with  Jacob  Is  his  dream 
at  Bethel.  This  was  one  of  the  stories  by  which  the 
Hebrews  justified  to  themselves  their  adoption  of  an 
old  Canaanltlsh  shrine.  The  stories  of  Isaac  seem.  In 
like  manner,  to  be  tales  of  alliance  with  Aramaeans, 
and  tales  of  shrines  like  that  at  Beersheba.  We  have 
no  extra  Biblical  material  with  which  to  compare  them. 
When  the  Investigator  takes  up  the  stories  of  Abra- 

1  Meissner,  Althabylonische  Prwatrecht,  36,  25. 

2  Cuneiform   Texts,  VIII,  25,  22. 

3  Cuneiform  Texts,  II,  8,  26. 

^  Mitteilungen   der   vorderasiatische   Gesellschaft,   1907,    p.   27. 
The  city  seems  to  have  been  east  of  the  Jordan  and  was,  perhaps,  the 
same  as  Penuel,  Gen.  32:31. 


36  THE  RELIGION  OF  ISRAEL 

ham,  moving  back  still  a  generation  from  the  nation 
Israel,  he  Is  confronted  with  much  material  and  with  a 
wealth  of  conflicting  theories.  Of  course  to  Jensen 
Abraham  is  a  form  of  the  Gllgamesh  myth.^  To 
Winckler  and  ZImmern  Abraham  is  a  moon  god.  The 
reasons  for  this  latter  view  have  seemed  convincing  to 
many.  Abram,  of  which  Abraham  was  but  a  variant 
form,  has  been  held  to  be  of  West  Semitic  origin  and  to 
mean  "  exalted  father."  ^  It  is  really,  as  we  shall  see, 
of  Babylonian  origin  and  has  another  meaning.  Tra- 
dition connected  him  with  Harran  and  Ur,  both  seats 
of  the  worship  of  the  moon  god.  In  Babylonian  hymns 
Sin,  the  moon  god.  Is  frequently  called  Ab  or  father.^^ 
Sarah  or  Sarai,  the  name  of  Abraham's  wife.  Is  the 
Hebrew  equivalent  of  sarratu,  "  queen,"  an  epithet  of 
the  consort  of  the  moon  god  at  Harran.  Milcah, 
Abraham's  sister-in-law  (Gen.  11,  29),  is  Malkatii,  the 
name  of  a  consort  of  the  sun  god  and  perhaps  also  of 
the  moon  god.^  These  are  some  of  the  arguments 
which  seem  to  the  adherents  of  this  view  conclusive.  It 
must  be  confessed  that  many  of  the  stories  told  of 
Abraham  In  Genesis  are  connected  with  shrines,  and 
would  be  explicable  on  this  view.  Their  purpose  was 
undoubtedly  to  justify  the  use  by  Hebrews  of  the  shrines 
of  Shechem,  Bethel,  Hebron,  and  Beersheba.  This  is 
not,  however,  the  whole  of  the  matter.     We  have  now 

1  Gilgameshepos  umi  der  IVeltliteratur,  Leipsig,  1906,  I,  p.  256  ff. 

-  Briggs,    Brown    and    Driver,    Hebrew   Lexicon,    Oxford,    1906,    p.    4. 

■^  Cf.  Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  XXVIII,  p.  166,  n.  26. 

*  Schrader,  Keilinschriften  und  das  Alte  Testament,  3d  ed.,  p.  364  ff. 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE   BIBLICAL   NARRATIVES      37 

evidence  that  Abraham  was  in  Babylonia  a  personal 
name.  This  evidence  comes  from  Dilbad,  a  little 
place  about  eight  miles  south  of  Borsippa,  and  consists 
of  some  contracts  in  which  an  Abraham  figures.  Three 
of  the  documents  are  here  translated:  ^ 

I 

I  ox,  broken  to  the  yoke,  an  ox  of  Ibni-Sin  son  of  Sin-im- 
gurani,  from  Ibni-Sin  through  the  agency  of  Kishti-Nabium, 
son  of  Eteru,  Abarama,  son  of  Awel-Ishtar,  for  i  month  has 
hired.  For  i  month  i  shekel  of  silver  he  will  pay.  Of  it  I/2 
shekel  of  silver  from  the  hand  of  Abarama  Kishti-Nabium  has 
received. 

The  names  of  the  witnesses  then  followed  and  the  date, 
which  is  the   nth  year  of  Ammizadugga,  or   1967   B.C. 

II 

To  the  patrician  speak  saying,  Gimil-Marduk  (wishes  that) 
Shamash  and  Marduk  may  give  thee  health!  Mayest  thou 
have  peace,  mayest  thou  have  health!  May  the  god  who 
protects  thee  keep  thy  head  in  good  luck!  (To  inquire)  con- 
cerning thy  health  I  am  sending.  May  thy  welfare  before 
Shamash  and  Marduk  be  eternal!  Concerning  the  400  sliars 
of  land,  the  field  of  Sin-idinam,  which  to  Abarama,  to  lease, 
thou  hast  sent;  the  land-steward  and  scribe  appeared  and  on 
behalf  of  Sin-idinam  I  took  that  up.  The  400  shars  of  land 
to  Abarama  as  thou  hast  directed  I  have  leased.  Concerning 
thy  dispatches  I  shall  not  be  negligent. 

Ill 

I  shekel  of  silver,  the  rent  of  his  field  for  the  year  that  Am- 
mizadugga, the  king,    (set  up)    a  lordly,  splendid  statue    (i.  e. 

1  For  the  whole  group  of  documents,  see  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the 
Bible,  Part  II,  ch.  ix. 


38  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

Ammizadugga's  13th  year),  brought  Abarama;  received  (it) 
Sin-idinam  and  Iddatum.  Month  Siman,  (May-June)  28th 
day,  the  year  Ammizadugga,  the  king  (set  up)  a  lordly,  splendid 
statue. 


These  documents  are  conclusive  proof  that  Abarama, 
or  Abraham,  was  a  personal  name  in  Babylonia.  The 
name  apparently  meant,  "  He  (f.  c,  some  god)  loves  the 
father."  The  Abraham  revealed  in  these  documents 
was  not  the  patriarch,  but  was  a  small  farmer  in  Bab- 
ylonia. His  father  was  Awel-Ishtar,  not  Terah;  his 
brother,  Iddatum,  not  Nahor.  His  existence,  however, 
shows  that,  just  as  in  the  cases  of  Jacob  and  Joseph,  a 
living  person  probably  existed  far  back  in  history  about 
whose  name  stories,  gathered  from  various  quarters, 
afterward  clustered. 

That  such  a  person  may  have  migrated  from  Bab- 
ylonia to  Palestine,  as  the  Biblical  patriarch  is  said  to 
have  done,  is  clearly  attested  by  an  interesting  little 
contract  from  Sippar,  which  reads  as  follows:  ^ 

A  wagon  from  Mannum-balum-Shamash,  son  of  Shelibia, 
Khabilkinum,  son  of  Appanibi  on  a  lease  for  i  year  has  hired. 
As  a  yearly  rental  %  of  a  shekel  of  silver  he  shall  pay.  As  the 
first  of  the  rent  %  of  a  shekel  of  silver  he  has  received.  Unto 
the  land  of  Kittim  he  shall  not  drive  it.  (After  the  names  of 
the  witnesses  comes  the  date.)  Month  Ulul,  day  25th,  the 
year  the  king  as  a  friend  protected  Erech  from  the  flood  of  the 
river. 

1  See  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  Part  II,  ch.  ix. 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE  BIBLICAL  NARRATIVES      39 

The  date  of  this  interesting  document  has  not  been 
identified  with  certainty,  but  it  probably  comes  from  the 
reign  of  Shamsuiluna  (2080-2043  B.C.).  The  coun- 
try Kittim  mentioned  in  it  is  the  Mediterranean  coast, 
which  was  sometimes  so  called  by  the  Hebrews  (cf.  Jer. 
2:  10,  and  Eze.  27:  6).  The  interesting  thing  is  that 
intercourse  between  the  Babylonian  city  of  Sippar  and 
the  Mediterranean  coast  was  so  frequent  when  this  con- 
tract was  made,  that  a  man  could  not  lease  his  wagon 
for  a  year  without  running  the  risk  that  it  might  be 
driven  to  the  Mediterranean  coast  lands.  It  was  in  a 
period  of  such  frequent  intercourse  that  some  Joseph-el 
and  Jacob-el  migrated  from  Babylonia  and  gave  their 
names  to  Palestinian  cities.  And  it  would  seem  that 
some  Babylonian  Abraham  may  have  done  the  same, 
for  Sheshonk  I.,  of  the  twenty-second  Egyptian  dynasty 
(the  Shishak  of  the  Bible),  records  as  one  of  the  places 
captured  by  him  in  Palestine  a  place  called  "  The  field 
of  Abram."  ^  This  place  would  seem  to  have  been  in 
southern  Judah.  It  would  seem  quite  as  likely  that  a 
Babylonian  Abraham  may  have  given  his  name  to  the 
place  in  the  same  way  that  a  Jacob-el  and  a  Joseph-el 
did,  and  that,  after  Hebrews  had  settled  in  the  country, 
they  took  his  name  over,  just  as  they  did  the  other  two, 
as  to  suppose  that  the  name  Abraham  originated  in  an 
epithet  of  a  moon  god. 

One  cannot  well  refuse  to  believe  that  many  of  the 
stories  connected  with  Abraham  grew  up  in  Palestine 

1  See  Breasted,  Ancient  Records,  Egypt,  IV,  pp.  352,  353. 


40  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

around  certain  shrines.  They  were  the  Instruments  by 
which  Israel  justified  her  use  of  these  shrines.  Other 
stories,  like  that  In  Genesis  i8,  19,  arose  as  the  expla- 
nation of  natural  phenomena,  such  as  the  existence  of 
the  Impressive  gorge  of  the  Dead  Sea,  and  probably  In 
their  earliest  form  had  no  connection  with  Abraham. 
One  can  hardly  believe,  In  view  of  all  the  evidence  pre- 
sented, that  Abraham  was  the  real  ancestor  of  all  the 
peoples  said  to  be  descended  from  him,  any  more  than 
he  can  believe  that  all  Egyptians  were  descended  from 
one,  MIzralm,  but  it  Is  no  longer  unthinkable  that  the 
stories  collected  about  Abraham  have  been  attached  to 
the  name  of  a  real  man,  who  once  migrated  from 
Babylonia.^ 

The  evidence  passed  In  review  indicates  that  the  patri- 
archal narratives  represent  a  combination  of  the  move- 
ments and  alliances  of  tribes,  and  of  traditions  connected 
with  certain  shrines  and  places.  While  they  are  not, 
as  formerly  supposed,  to  be  taken  literally  as  the  expe- 
riences and  fortunes  of  Individuals,  they  nevertheless 
portray  certain  tribal  and  historical  facts,  which  they 
have  grouped  around  the  names  of  certain  famous 
Amorites  who  once  migrated  into  Palestine  and  gave 
their  names  to  certain  of  its  localities. 

This  view  does  not  seriously  affect  the  religious  value 
of  the  stories.  That  value  was  always  greater  in  some 
cases  than  In  others.     The  J  writer  related  the   incl- 

1  For  a  discussion  of  the  much  debated  fourteenth  chapter  of  Genesis, 
see  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  Part  II,  ch.  ix- 


THE  VALUE  OF   THE  BIBLICAL   NARRATIVES      41 

dents  mainly  for  the  Interest  of  the  story  itself.  The 
religious  lesson  that  the  story  teaches  was  often  made 
prominent  by  him,  but,  if  the  story  was  interesting,  he 
did  not  withhold  it  even  if  its  religious  suggestion  was 
slight.  In  E  the  religious  interest  is  more  generally 
manifest;  in  P  it  is  predominant.  The  religious  lessons 
conveyed  by  means  of  these  narratives  and  the  religious 
spirit  by  which  they  are  pervaded  are  only  made  more 
prominent  by  the  historical  method  of  study.^ 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  The  Literary  Analysis  of  the  Book  of  Genesis;  cf.  S.  R. 
Driver,  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament, 
9th  ed.,  New  York,  19 14,  pp.  5-21 ;  J.  Estlin  Carpenter  and  G. 
Harford-Battersby,  The  Hexateuch,  London,  1900,  Vol.  I, 
chaps,  i  and  xiv;  Vol.  I,  pp.  1-79. 

2.  Classification  of  the  Narratives  of  Genesis  according  to  the 
Source  from  which  they  came,  such  as  the  Wilderness,  the 
Canaanites,  Babylonia,  etc. ;  cf .  L.  B.  Paton,  "  Oral  Sources  of 
the  Patriarchal  Narratives  "  in  the  American  Journal  of  The- 
ology, VIII  (1904),  pp.  658-682;  J.  P.  Peters,  Early  Hebrew 
Story,  its  Historical  Background,  New  York  and  London,  1904, 
chaps,  iii— v. 

3.  Babylonian  Parallels  to  the  Accounts  of  the  Creation  and 
Flood;  cf.  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  Philadel- 
phia, 1916,  Part  II,  chaps,  i-viii ;  R.  W.  Rogers,  Cuneiform 
Parallels  to  the  Old  Testament,  New  York,  19 12,  pp.  3-60  and 
90-113. 

4.  Abraham  and  Archaeology;  cf.  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology 

1  See,  for  a  demonstration  of  this,  G.  A.  Barton,  The  Roots  of  Chris- 
tian Teaching  as  Found  in  the  Old  Testament,  Philadelphia,  1902. 


42  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

and  the  Bible,  Part  II,  ch.  ix;  M.  G.  Kyle,  The  Deciding  Voice 
of  the  Monuments  in  Biblical  Criticism,  Oberlln,  Ohio,  191 2, 
ch.  xi  and  passim;  and  G.  A.  Barton,  "  Higher  Archaeology  and 
the  Verdict  of  Criticism  "  in  the  Journal  of  Biblical  Literature, 
Vol  XXXII  (1913),  pp.  244-260. 

5.  Archaeological  Parallels  to  the  Stories  of  Joseph;  cf.  G.  A. 
Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  Part  II,  ch.  x;  W.  M. 
Flinders  Petrie,  Egyptian   Tales,  second  series,   London,    1895, 

p.  36  ff. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   ORIGIN    OF   THE    ISRAELITISH    NATION 

Hebrew  Tribes  came  together  in  Different  Groups  —  Archaeological 
Evidence  for  this  —  Evidence  in  Old  Testament  —  Leah  Tribes  En- 
tered Palestine  from  South  in  Fourteenth  Century  b.  c— Rachel 
Tribes  in  Egypt  —  Entered  Palestine  from  East  about  1200  B.  c. — 
Religion  of  the  Separate  Tribes. 

In  tracing  the  steps  by  which  the  religion  of  Israel 
sprang  up,  grew,  and  blessed  the  world,  it  is  helpful 
first  to  gain  a  clear  idea  of  the  origin  of  the  Israelitish 
people.  If  the  facts  set  forth  in  the  preceding  chapter 
are  valid,  the  traditional  view,  which  traces  the  ancestry 
of  all  the  tribes  to  Abraham,  who  was  himself  a  mono- 
theist  and  a  worshipper  of  Yahweh,  has  to  be  modified. 
The  tribes  came  together  in  different  groups  and  pos- 
sibly from  different  directions.  Whence  did  they  come? 
When  did  they  respectively  arrive  in  Palestine?  Were 
they  all  originally  worshippers  of  the  same  God? 
These  are  some  of  the  questions  that  press  for  answer 
before  the  modern  student  of  the  Bible  can  feel  his  feet 
upon  firm  ground.  It  has  been  shown  in  the  preceding 
chapter  that  there  are  two  distinctly  marked  groups  of 
tribes,  each  with  its  own  totemistic  or  economic  symbol, 
the  Leah  tribes  and  the  Rachel  tribes.  The  traditions 
mark  the  difference  between  these  groups  as  radical. 

43 


4-4  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

If  we  judge  by  the  documents  of  the  Hexateuch,  there 
was  to  some  degree  a  religious  difference  also.  The  J 
document,  composed  in  Judah,  one  of  the  Leah  tribes, 
prefers  the  name  Yahweh  for  God,  and  represents  the 
worship  of  Yahweh  as  beginning  in  the  earliest  times 
(Gen.  4:  26).  The  E  document,  written  in  Ephraim, 
one  of  the  Rachel  tribes,  prefers  the  name  EloJum  for 
God,  and  has  an  account  of  how  the  name  Yahweh  was 
revealed  first  in  the  time  of  Moses  (Ex.  3:  1-14). 
This  difference  points  to  a  difference  in  religious  history 
and  tradition. 

The  difference  thus  suggested  receives  striking  sup- 
port from  archaeology.  The  El-Amarna  letters  show 
that  in  the  time  of  Amenophis  IV  of  the  eighteenth 
Egyptian  dynasty  about  1375-1360,  a  people  called 
Habiri  was  struggling  for  the  possession  of  the  coun- 
try around  Jerusalem.^  At  the  same  time  a  people  was 
overrunning  the  northern  part  of  Palestine  whom  the 
kings  of  Gebal  and  neighbouring  districts  designate  by 
the  ideogram  SA-GAZ,  which  sometimes  means  plun- 
derers, but  which  a  tablet  found  at  Baghas  Koi,  the  old 
Hittlte  capital  in  Asia  Minor,  equates  with  Habiru.^ 
Habiru  is  phonetically  equivalent  to  Ihri,  Hebrew, 
and  the  evidence  of  these  letters  is  that  Hebrews  were 
struggling  for  the  possession  of  both  northern  and 
southern  Palestine  at  this  time.  It  has  already  been 
pointed  out  in  the  preceding  chapter  that  the  tribe  of 

1  See  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  Part  II,  ch.  xv. 

2  See  Mitteilungen  der  deutschen  Orientgesellschaft,  No.  35,  p.  25,  note. 


THE  ORIGIN   OF   THE  ISRAELITISH   NATION     45 

Asher  was  probably  also  present  in  northern  Palestine 
at  that  period.^  Seti  I  and  Ramses  II,  of  the  nine- 
teenth dynasty,  mention  a  land  Isr  which  many  scholars 
believe  to  be  Asher,  and  hold  that  we  have  confirmation 
in  this  way  that  Asher  continued  during  the  nineteenth 
dynasty  to  reside  in  northern  Palestine. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  has  long  been  recognized  that 
the  story  of  the  oppression  of  Israel  in  Egypt  in  Ex.  i 
and  2,  which  is  made  up  of  a  combination  of  J  and  E 
narratives,  shows  a  belief  that  Israel  was  in  Egypt  dur- 
ing the  time  of  Ramses  II  (i 292-1 225  B.  c.)   and  that 
Ramses  was  the  Pharaoh  of  the  oppression.     The  He- 
brews are  said  to  have  built  for  him  the  cities  of  Pithom 
and  Raamses   (Ex.   i:  11).     Naville  in   1883,  in  exca- 
vating the  mound  Tell  el-Maskhuta,  discovered  the  city 
Pi-tum,  and  the  cartouch  of  Ramses  in  the  inscriptions 
found  there  shows  that  the  city  was  either  built  or  re- 
built  by   him.     The    name    of   the    neighbouring    city, 
Raamses,  is  in  itself  evidence  that  the  text  points  to  the 
reign  of  this  king.     If  Ramses  II  was  the  oppressor  of 
the  Hebrews,  then  the  Exodus  could  not  have  occurred 
until  the  reign  of  his  successor,  Merneptah  (i  225-121 5 
B.  c),  who  was  a  less  vigorous  ruler  than  Ramses,  or 
until  some  later  period.     It  has  been  customary  in  many 
circles    in    recent   years    to    regard   Merneptah    as    the 
Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus.     This,  however,  involves  us  in 
a  difficulty.     In  a  hymn  of  victory,  set  up  in  Mernep- 
tah's  fifth  year,  when  he  had  come  off  victorious  in  wars 

J  See  above,  p.  33  f* 


46  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

with  all  his  enemies,  he  mentions  Israel  as  one  of  the 
nations  of  Palestine.  The  reference  is  made  as  though 
Israel  was  one  of  the  old  residents  of  the  region.^ 

In  a  number  of  Egyptian  texts  there  is  mention  of  a 
people  called  ^-pw-r,  which  Chabas  suggested  might  be 
the  Egyptian  form  of  '  Ihri,  Hebrews.  Many  scholars 
have  hesitated  to  accept  this  view,  but  there  Is  much  to 
be  said  in  its  favour.  These  people  are  mentioned  not 
only  in  the  reign  of  Ramses  II,  but  in  the  reigns  of 
Ramses  III  (1198-1167  B.  c.)  and  Ramses  IV  (1167- 
1161  B.C.).  It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  we  have 
evidence  that  the  Hebrews  were  in  Palestine  and  in 
Egypt  at  the  same  time.  How  Is  this  contradiction  to 
be  explained?  ^ 

The  suggestion  has  been  made  by  several  scholars 
that  the  two  main  groups  of  tribes,  the  Leah  group  and 
the  Rachel  group,  did  not  enter  Palestine  at  the  same 
time,  but  that  the  Leah  group  entered  that  country  in 
the  time  of  the  eighteenth  Egyptian  dynasty,  and  the 
Rachel  group  in  the  time  of  the  nineteenth  or  twentieth 
dynasties.  Thus,  and  thus  only,  can  the  evidence  be- 
fore us  be  harmonized,  and  it  Is  probable  that  this  Is  the 
historical  fact.  According  to  this  view  the  Leah  tribes 
were  first  called  Israel  and  the  Rachel  tribes  only  were 
In  Egypt.     The  nation  was  never  welded  together  into 

1  See  J.  H.  Breasted,  Ancient  Records,  Egypt,  Vol.  Ill,  §  617,  or  Bar- 
ton, Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  Part  II,  ch.  xii,  §  2,  p.  311. 

2  For  a  fuller  discussion  of  these  facts  see  L.  B.  Paton  in  the  Biblical 
World,  Vol.  XLVI,  82-88,  to  whose  article  the  writer  is  greatly  in- 
debted. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  ISRAELITISH   NATION     47 

one  whole  until  the  time  of  David  and  Solomon.  This 
view  is  confirmed  by  much  in  the  Old  Testament  nar- 
ratives, when  they  are  analysed  into  their  original  docu- 
ments. 

It  appears  from  both  the  J  and  E  narratives  in  Ex- 
odus that  the  Hebrews  formed  but  a  small  community 
in  Egypt.  According  to  J  they  all  lived  in  Goshen  and 
could  be  easily  assembled  to  hear  a  message  from  Moses 
(Gen.  45:  10;  Ex.  4:  20;  8:  22)  ;  according  to  E  they 
were  so  small  a  community  that  two  mid-wives  could 
control  the  birth-rate  among  them  (Ex.  i :  15).  These 
accounts  presuppose  a  smaller  group  of  people  than  the 
twelve  tribes,  and  tend  to  justify  the  supposition  that 
there  were  but  two. 

Another  striking  fact  is  the  presence  of  two  tradi- 
tions, one  of  a  sojourn  at  Kadesh,  and  the  other  of  a 
sojourn  at  Sinai,  which  the  later  compilers  of  tradition 
were  unable  to  harmonize.  In  the  E  document,  Ex. 
15:25b,  there  is  a  fragment,  inserted  just  after  the 
crossing  of  the  Red  Sea,  which  explains  the  origin  of 
the  name  Massa,  ''proving,"  which  is  the  same  as 
Meribah,  "place  of  strife"  (Ex.  17:7;  Dt.  33:8). 
But  Meribah  is  the  same  as  Kadesh  (Nu.  27:14). 
After  this  mention  of  Kadesh  in  Ex.  15:25b,  the  ac- 
count resumes  the  march  to  Sinai,  but  In  Ex.  17:  7,  the 
mention  of  Massah-Merlbah  shows  that  we  are  back  at 
Kadesh  again.  In  Ex.  17:8-16  Israel  fights  with 
Amalek  at  Sinai,  but  Amalek  is  the  enemy  that  attacked 
Israel  at  Kadesh  (Nu.  14:45)-     In  Ex.  18  Moses  at 


48  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

Sinai  appointed  Judges,  but  this  happened  at  Kadesh 
(Nu.  ii:i6ff.)-  Still  other  inconsistencies  arising 
from  the  confusion  of  the  two  places  might  be  gathered 
from  the  pages  of  the  Pentateuch.  The  most  natural 
reason  for  this  failure  of  the  Biblical  writers  success- 
fully to  combine  the  narratives  of  Sinai  and  Kadesh  is 
the  supposition  that  these  two  places  were  the  rendez- 
vous of  two  different  groups  of  tribes,  who  centred  in 
these  respective  places  at  two  different  times,  and  whose 
sojourns  the  compiler  of  the  Pentateuch,  having  lost  the 
historical  perspective,  strove  unsuccessfully  to  regard  as 
the  successive  sojourns  of  the  same  people. 

Kadesh  was  the  centre  of  the  Leah  tribes,  for  accord- 
ing to  Nu.  21  :  1-3,  Jud.  1:17  and  the  genealogies  of 
Chronicles  these  tribes  invaded  Canaan  from  the  south. 
Sinai,  on  the  other  hand,  belongs  to  the  Rachel  tribes, 
who  entered  Palestine  from  the  east.  Thus  in  the  song 
of  Deborah,  which  was  written  in  the  north,  Yahweh  is 
said  to  come  from  Sinai  (Jud.  5:5),  and  in  the  stories 
of  Elijah,  which  took  literary  form  in  Ephraim,  Elijah 
is  said  to  have  gone  to  Sinai  to  meet  with  Yahweh  ( i 
Kgs.  19:  8).  In  the  traditions  of  the  stay  at  Kadesh 
the  Leah  tribes,  Reuben  and  Levi,  are  especially  men- 
tioned, while  Joseph  is  conspicuously  absent.  Joshua, 
the  Ephraimite  leader,  is  also  not  mentioned  in  the  ac- 
counts of  Kadesh  which  come  from  J,  E,  and  D.  His 
name  is  inserted  only  in  the  later  P  document.  We  con- 
clude, then,  that  the  Leah  tribes,  called  Israel,  made  the 
spring  of  Kadesh  their  rendezvous  before  they  invaded 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE  ISRAELITISH   NATION      49 

Palestine  from  the  south  In  the  time  of  Egypt's  eight- 
eenth dynasty,  while  It  was  the  Rachel  tribes,  who  first 
sojourned  at  SInal  and  afterward  Invaded  Palestine 
from  the  east. 

The  narratives  of  the  conquest  that  are  embedded 
In  the  Biblical  documents  likewise  bear  out  this  view. 
As  already  noted,  Nu.  21  :  1-3  and  Jud.  i :  1-20  con- 
tain an  account  of  an  Invasion  of  Palestine  from  the 
south  by  "  Israel,"  or,  more  specifically,  by  Judah  and 
Simeon.  In  Jud.  1:1  the  phrase  "  after  the  death  of 
Joshua  "  Is  the  addition  of  a  later  editor.  Removing 
this  we  have  a  similar  account  (Jud.  i  :  1-20)  of  how 
Judah  and  Simeon  went  up.^  Israel  was  not  united,  but 
the  tribes  went  up  singly  or  In  small  groups  to  fight  each 
for  Its  own  abiding  place.  They  successfully  fought 
Adonl-Bezek,  who  was  apparently  a  king  of  Jerusalem. 
The  Caleblte  and  Kennlzlte  clans  took  Hebron  and  the 
region  around  It,  and  a  certain  Kenlte  or  certain  Ken- 
Ites  moved  In  and  mingled  with  the  tribe  of  Judah. 
The  later  narrator  recognizes  the  connection  of  this 
clan  with  Moses  by  marriage.  The  thirty-eighth  chap- 
ter of  Genesis  relates  the  marriages  of  Judah  and  his 
sons  with  various  Canaanltlsh  women.  Interpreting 
this  on  the  principles  laid  down  In  the  preceding  chap- 
ter, It  Is  clear  that  this  conquest  of  the  highlands  of 
Judaea  did  not  result  In  the  expulsion  of  all  the  tribes 
who  were  previously  there.     Alliances  were  made  with 

1  The  first  chapter  of  Judges,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  editorial 
additions,  is  an  excerpt  from  the  J  document. 


50  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

them  and  they  were  gradually  absorbed.  The  remain- 
der of  Judges  I  is  occupied  with  accounts  of  how  other 
tribes  fought  singly  for  standing  room  In  Palestine,  and 
records  their  varying  successes.  None  of  them  suc- 
ceeded In  driving  out  all  of  the  Canaanltes,  but  these 
dwelt  long  In  their  midst  and  were  absorbed  only 
gradually. 

The  book  of  Joshua  Is  composed  of  four  strands,  J, 
E,  D,  and  P.^  The  J  narrative  In  Joshua  contains  sev- 
eral passages  that  are  parallel,  and  almost  Identical  with 
parts  of  Judges  i.  These  are  Joshua  13:  13;  15:  14- 
19,  63;  16:  1-3,  10;  17:  11-18;  19;  47.  This,  with 
the  E  narrative,  represents  the  tribes  as  going  up  singly 
or  In  small  groups  to  fight  for  their  Inheritances,  though 
here  they  are  all  represented  as  having  entered  Pales- 
tine from  the  east.  Joshua  was  the  leader  only  of  the 
Rachel  tribes.  According  to  these  narratives  the  He- 
brews did  not  expel  all  the  previous  Inhabitants  of  the 
land,  nor  even  conquer  them  all,  but  settled  among  them 
and  gradually  absorbed  them. 

The  D  and  P  narratives  of  Joshua  represent  Joshua 
as  having  completely  conquered  Palestine,  including  the 
Philistine  plain,  and  as  assigning  by  lot  their  portion  to 
the  different  tribes,  and  even  the  Levitlcal  cities  to  the 
Levites. 

Of  these  three  groups  of  narratives  one  cannot  hesl- 

1  The  student  should  look  up  the  text  of  these  documents  in  Carpenter 
and  Harford-Battersby's  Hexateuch,  London,  1900,  Vol.  II,  pp.  320-359, 
or  Bennett's  Joshua  in  Paul  Haupt's  Sacred  Books  of  the  Old  Testament, 
New  York,  1899. 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE  ISRAELITISH   NATION      5 1 

tate,  In  view  of  the  archaeological  evidence,  to  regard 
that  of  Nu.  21:  1-3  and  Jud.  i:  1-20^  as  the  more 
historical.  All  critical  scholars  agree  In  regarding  the 
view  presented  In  D  and  P,  that  the  land  was  wholly 
conquered  and  divided  by  Joshua,  as  unhlstorlcal.  It 
shows  how  religious  men  of  a  later  time  thought  events 
ought  to  have  transpired.  It  Is  contradicted  by  too 
many  facts  In  the  older  narratives  to  be  accepted.  The 
JE  account  of  Joshua  forms  an  Intermediate  stage  be- 
tween that  of  Nu.  21 :  1-3,  etc.,  and  the  later  D  and  P 
picture.  The  earlier  historical  fact  of  the  separate  at- 
tack and  partial  conquest  Is  In  the  JE  portions  of  Joshua 
recalled  and  recorded,  but  the  fact  that  a  part  of  the 
tribes  entered  from  the  south  had  already  been  lost 
sight  of  .^ 

Thus,  when  studied  In  the  light  of  historical  analysis, 
the  Biblical  documents,  like  the  archaeological  facts, 
point  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Leah  tribes  entered  Pal- 
estine first,  and  that  they  came,  at  least  In  part,  from 
the  south,  while  the  Rachel  tribes  came  later  from  the 
east. 

If  this  be  so,  the  Rachel  tribes  were  not  fused  with 
the  Leah  tribes  until  after  the  latest  comers,  the  Rachel 
tribes,   had  entered   Palestine,   i.   e.,   some   time   about 

1  Many  scholars  take  "the  City  of  Palm  Trees"  in  Jud.  i:  16  to  refer 
to  Jericho.  It  is  not  so  certain,  however,  but  that  some  city  in  the 
south  may  have  been   intended. 

2  See  the  excellent  discussion  by  Paton  in  the  Biblical  JVorld,  Vol. 
XLVI,  173-180.  Also  his  discussion  of  the  whole  subject  in  the  Journal 
of  Biblical  Literature,  Vol.  XXXII,  pp.  1-53. 


52  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

1 200  B.  c.  or  later.  The  date  of  this  event  cannot  be 
accurately  fixed.  If  the  *-pw-r  of  the  Egyptian  inscrip- 
tions were  Hebrews,  some  of  them  remained  in  Egypt 
until  the  reign  of  Ramses  IV,  11 67-1 161  B.C.  It  is 
hardly  possible  that  the  Rachel  tribes  really  left 
Egypt  as  late  as  this,  for  the  song  of  Deborah  (Jud.  5) 
bears  witness  to  the  fact  that  Ephraim  and  Machir,  a 
clan  of  the  tribe  of  Manasseh,  were  well  settled  in  Pal- 
estine before  the  time  of  Deborah,  and  the  events  de- 
scribed in  this  song  cannot  well  be  placed  much  later 
than  1 100  B.  c.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  possible  that 
the  men  whom  Moses  persuaded  to  follow  him  out  of 
Egypt,  and  who  became  the  Rachel  tribes  of  history, 
did  not  constitute  the  whole  body  of  '-pw-r  who  were 
settled  there.  Some  of  them  may  have  remained,  pre- 
ferring the  assured  plenty  of  Egyptian  life  to  the  un- 
certain fortunes  of  the  desert  adventure.  If  this  were 
so,  the  Exodus  may  have  occurred  before  the  time  of 
Ramses  IV. 

Whenever  the  exodus  from  Egypt  occurred  and  the 
final  fusion  of  the  Israelitish  tribes  into  one  whole  be- 
gan, the  problem  of  the  nature  of  their  religion  before 
the  time  of  Moses  becomes  an  interesting  one.  As  they 
were  all  Semitic  tribes,  it  may  be  assumed  that  their  gods 
were  related  to  those  early  Semitic  deities  whose  wor- 
ship was  shaped  by  the  desert  and  oasis  life.  It  may 
probably  be  assumed  that,  like  other  early  clans,  they 
were  henotheists  and  had  each  its  own  god.  One  or 
two  divine  names  have  survived  which  bear  out  to  some 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE  ISRAELITISH   NATION      53 

degree  this  assumption.  If  the  tribe  of  Asher  origi- 
nated as  has  been  supposed  above/  the  name  goes  back 
ultimately  to  the  goddess  Ashera,  a  goddess  practically 
identical  In  character  with  Astarte  (Ashtart^).  Since 
Ebed-Ashera  bore  a  name  which  means  "  servant  of  the 
goddess  Ashera,"  it  seems  a  fair  inference  that  this  god- 
dess was  worshipped  by  his  clan,  and  there  is  at  present 
nothing  known  which  contradicts  this  inference.  The 
letters  of  Aziru,  the  son  of  Ebed-Ashera,  in  the  El- 
Amarna  correspondence,  mention  no  other  deity.  We 
assume,  then,  that  the  tribe  Asher  had  originally  a  god- 
dess Ashera. 

Similarly  the  tribe  of  Gad  would  appear  to  have  had 
a  god  Gad.  True  the  name  of  this  god  is  mentioned 
but  once,  and  that  In  a  late  text  (Isa.  65  :  11),  where  he 
appears  as  a  god  of  fortune,  but  the  name  identifies  him 
with  the  tribe  of  Gad.  It  has  happened  many  times  in 
the  history  of  religion,  that  the  god  of  one  tribe  or  city, 
when  that  tribe  or  city  was  merged  in  a  larger  and  a 
complex  political  entity,  became  but  one  of  many  gods, 
and  the  later  feeling  for  religious  unity,  which  grew  out 
of  political  unity,  resulted  In  the  assignment  of  special 
functions  to  such  a  god.  Thus  a  god  that  had  at  one 
time  done  all  that  a  tribe  was  thought  to  need  a  super- 
natural friend  to  do  for  It,  might  become  the  god  of 
the  rain,  or  the  air,  or  of  the  dew,  or  of  fortune.      Such 

1  See  above,  p.  33  f. 

2  See  Barton,  A  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  Social  arid  Religious, 
New  York,  1902,  p.  246  f. 


54  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

analogies  lead  us  to  suppose  that  the  god  Gad  was  once 
the  deity  of  the  tribe  of  the  same  name. 

The  names  of  no  other  deities  have  survived  that  can 
be  connected  with  any  particular  tribe  of  Israelites.  It 
Is  only  because  of  analogy  that  we  assume  that  they 
probably  had  such  deities.  The  name  of  one  other 
deity,  Meni,  a  goddess  of  fortune,  appears  In  Isa. 
65  :  II,  but  the  name  cannot  be  connected  with  any  tribe. 
A  study  of  Hebrew  proper  names  reveals  the  fact  that 
In  the  early  periods  of  the  history  a  number  of  divine 
names  were  popular.  Such  were  Ab,  "  father,"  Melek, 
"  king,"  JdSn,  "  lord,"  Ba'al,  "  owner  "  or  "  lord,"  El, 
"  god,"  but  these  are  mere  epithets  that  might  be  ap- 
plied to  any  deity,  and  It  is  by  no  means  certain  that 
where  they  occur  they  do  not  refer  to  Yahweh.  There 
are  also  two  or  three  divine  names  known  to  us  outside 
of  proper  names,  such  as  Eloah,  "  god,"  of  which  Elo- 
him  is  the  plural,  Shaddai,  "  the  mountain  deity,"  or 
"  mighty  one,"  and  Elyon,  "  the  exalted  one."  These, 
too,  may  all  refer  to  Yahweh.  Elyon,  which  Is  charac- 
teristic of  late  Biblical  texts,  certainly  refers  to  him. 

Possibly  some  one  of  these  tribes  had  a  deity  Moth 
or  Maiveth.  At  all  events  In  i  Chron.  6:  25  we  find 
a  name  Ahl-moth,  "  My  brother  Is  Moth,"  and  In  2 
Sam.  23:31  ( also  I  Chr.  11  :  33 )  the  name  Azmaweth, 
"Moth  Is  mighty."  If,  however,  there  was  such  a 
deity,  all  other  traces  of  his  existence  In  Israel  have 
disappeared.  It  is  probable  that  the  religion  of  the 
Hebrew  tribes  before  the  time  of  Moses  was  of  the 


THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE  ISRAELITISH   NATION      55 

same  general  nature  as  the  worship  of  other  Semitic 
tribes,  and  that  each  had  one  or  more  deities.  Whether 
any  two  of  them  worshipped  the  same  god,  we  cannot 
now  say.  Possibly  the  Leah  tribes  did  so.  Whether 
this  god  was  Yahweh  or  not,  will  be  treated  in  the  next 
chapter. 

Since  the  Hebrew  tribes  had  many  of  them  migrated 
from  place  to  place,  it  is  probable  that  there  was  at  the 
beginning  of  their  united  history  some  degree  of  syn- 
cretism in  their  religion.  But  their  religious  ideas  must, 
in  any  case,  have  been  as  unorganized  and  confused  as 
was  their  political  life. 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  The  Evidence  for  the  Formation  of  the  Hebrew  Nation; 
cf.  L.  B.  Paton,  in  the  Biblical  World,  Vol.  XLVI,  pp.  82-88, 
173-180,    and     in    the    Journal    of    Biblical    Literature,    Vol. 

XXXII,  pp.  1-53. 

2.  The  Religion  of  Israel  before  Moses ;  cf .  J.  P.  Peters,  The 
Religion  of  the  Hebrews,  Boston,  19 14,  ch.  iii. 


CHAPTER  IV 

MOSES    AND   THE    COVENANT    WITH    YAHWEH 

Rachel  Tribes  made  Covenant  with  Yahweh  —  Moses  —  Yahweh  God 
of  the  Kenite-Midianites  —  Name  of  Yahweh  in  Arabia  —  Nature 
of  Kenite  Yahweh  —  Moses'  Experience  of  Yahweh  —  Bearing  of 
Covenant  on  Ethical  Development  —  The  Decalogue  of  this  Pe- 
riod—  The  Spread  of  Yahweh's  Worship  to  Other  Tribes  —  Hy- 
potheses, not  Certainty. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  reasons  have  been  given  for 
beheving  that  the  Leah  tribes  settled  in  Palestine  be- 
tween 1400  and  1350  B.  c,  and  that  the  Rachel  tribes 
were  the  ones  who  settled  for  a  time  in  Egypt,  came  out 
in  that  Exodus  of  which  the  Old  Testament  says  so 
much,  sojourned  for  a  time  at  Sinai,  and  afterward  en- 
tered Palestine  from  the  east.  In  the  course  of  this 
discussion  it  was  noted  that  the  earliest  document  of  the 
Rachel  tribes,  the  E  document,^  contains  a  distinct  ac- 
count of  the  revelation  of  the  name  Yahweh  to  Moses 
(Ex.  3:  1-14),  while  the  Judaean  document  J  assumes 
that  the  name  had  been  known  from  the  time  of  the 
grandson  of  Adam  (Gen.  4:  26).  Both  documents  re- 
cord,  however,   the   fact  that,   in  the  time   of   Moses, 

1  The  E  writer  adopted  his  favourite  term,  Elohitn,  for  God  from  the 
Canaanites  in  whose  land  he  settled.  The  writer  showed  in  the  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  1892,  pp.  196-199,  that 
the  Canaanites  of  the  El-Amarna  period  already  used  this  plural  as  a 
singular. 

56 


MOSES  AND  THE  COVENANT  WITH  YAHWEH      57 

Israel  entered  Into  a  distinct  covenant  to  serve  Yahweh, 
whereby  Yahweh  became  the  God  of  the  nation.  It  re- 
mains to  state  more  clearly  the  historical  facts  which  led 
to  the  exclusion  of  other  gods  from  Israel  and  the  con- 
centration of  Its  worship  upon  Yahweh. 

The  convergence  of  the  Hebrew  traditions  upon 
Moses  as  the  man  who  gave  the  Initial  Impulse  to  the 
worship  of  Yahweh  In  Israel  mark  him  out  as  the 
emancipator  of  the  Rachel  tribes,  and  the  one  who  In- 
troduced, at  least  to  this  portion  of  Israel,  the  religion 
of  Yahweh.  The  fact  that  Hebrews  keenly  suffered  In 
Egypt,  that  deliverance  came  through  Moses,  that  faith 
for  the  accomplishment  of  It  was  aroused  by  his  preach- 
ing of  Yahweh,  that  they  proceeded  to  SInal  and  a  cov- 
enant was  made  between  Yahweh  and  Israel,  which 
became  the  basis  of  Israel's  subsequent  religion,  are 
facts  that  were  sufficiently  burned  Into  the  national  con- 
sciousness of  Israel  to  be  attested  by  all  her  future  lit- 
erature. Without  them  the  later  religious  history 
would  be  Inexplicable. 

While  these  fundamental  facts  stand  out  clearly 
through  the  haze  of  tradition,  there  Is  less  certainty  as 
to  details.  Naturally  when  the  written  records  come 
from  a  period  so  much  later,  absolute  historical  cer- 
tainty cannot  be  secured  In  dealing  with  details.  We 
can  discern  certain  outlines  which  are  probably  true,  but 
in  drawing  these  outlines  It  must  ever  be  borne  in  mind 
that  they  are  not  historical  certainties,  but  at  the  most, 
probable  hypotheses. 


58  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

/ 
"^    One   such   hypothesis,   which   has   in   the   last   thirty 

years  won  for  Itself  a  large  acceptance  among  scholars, 
is  that  Yahweh  was  the  deity  of  the  Kenites,  a  part  of 
whose  habitat  was  a  volcanic  mountain,^  that  it  was 
there  that  Moses  learned  of  his  worship,  and  that  the 
covenant  at  that  mountain  was  the  introduction  into 
Israel  of  the  worship  of  a  god  who  had  previously  been 
the  tribal  god  of  the  Kenite-MIdlanites.  The  reasons 
for  this  view  are  In  part:  (i)  That  it  was  at  Horeb 
that  Moses  first  learned  of  the  name  of  Yahweh  —  a 
name  that  was  previously  unknown  to  him  (see  Exod. 
3  :  2-14) .  In  the  ancient  East  the  introduction  of  a  new 
name  meant  the  introduction  of  a  new  deity.  (2) 
That  after  the  exodus  from  Egypt  and  the  arrival  at 
Horeb  it  was  Jethro,  Moses'  father-in-law,  the  priest 
of  MIdlan,  who  offered  to  Yahweh  the  first  sacrifice  in 
which  Hebrews  participated.  Moses,  Aaron,  and  all 
the  elders  of  Israel  were  present  and  participated  In  the 
sacrificial  festival  which  followed  (Exod.  18:12). 
Apparently  Jethro  was  Initiating  the  Hebrews  Into  the 
worship  of  the  new  deity.  Then  followed  the  covenant 
between  Yahweh  and  Israel.  This  was  sealed  by  a  sac- 
rificial   feast   without   Jethro,    at   which   were    Moses, 

1  This  volcanic  mountain  can  hardly  have  been  the  traditional  Sinai, 
at  the  apex  of  the  Sinaitic  peninsula,  as  there  has  been  no  volcanic 
activity  there  within  the  historic  period.  It  is  probable  that  it  was  a 
mountain  to  the  east  of  the  Gulf  of  Akabah.  A  volcano  to  the  north 
of  the  city  of  Medina  was  active  as  late  as  1256  a.  D. ;  see  Studies  in 
the  History  of  Religions  presented  to  Crawford  Hoivell  Toy  by  Pupils, 
Colleagues  and  Friends,  New  York,  1912,  p.   197  f. 


MOSES  AND  THE  COVENANT  WITH  YAHWEH      59 

Aaron,  and  seventy  elders  of  Israel  (Exod.  24:  9-1 1). 
These  traditions,  which  come  in  part  from  the  J  docu- 
ment and  in  part  from  the  E  document,  our  oldest 
sources,  embody  apparently  Israel's  earliest  recollection 
of  these  events,  and  indicate  clearly  that  Yahweh  was 
a  tribal  god  of  the  Kenite-Midianites  before  he  became 
the  covenant  God  of  the  Rachel  tribes.^ 

Is  it  possible  to  penetrate  farther  into  the  past  and 
discern  anything  of  the  previous  history  of  Yahweh? 
Information  which  has  come  to  light  in  recent  years 
makes  it  probable  that  the  name  Yahweh  was  known 
In  Babylonia  about  2000  B.  c,  where  it  formed  a  part 
of  certain  proper  names.  This  was  seven  hundred 
years  or  more  before  Moses.  The  same  name  appears 
there  again  in  the  fourteenth  century  B.  c,  and  was  also 
In  the  same  century  an  element  of  a  proper  name  in 
Palestine.  These  names  come  from  the  century  before 
Moses.  It  also  appears  to  form  a  part  of  the  name  of 
an  Aramaean  king  of  Hamath  in  the  eighth  century  B.  c. 
The  Babylonians  who  bore  these  names  were  foreigners, 
having  moved  to  that  country  from  elsewhere,  and 
analogy  with  other  Semitic  migrations  would  lead  us  to 
believe  that  they  migrated  from  some  part  of  north 
Arabia.  The  Kenite-Midianites  had  their  habitat  in 
that    very    region,    roaming    from    the    peninsula    of 

1  For  fuller  statements  of  this  view  see  Budde,  The  Religion  of 
Israel  to  the  Exile,  New  York,  1899,  chap,  i;  Barton,  A  Sketch  of  Semitic 
Origins,  New  York,  1902,  pp.  272  f.,  275  f . ;  and  Hastings,  Dictionary  of 
the  Bible  in  One  Volume,  New  York,  1907,  p.  410. 


6o  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

Sinai  on  the  west  far  into  the  heart  of  Arabia  on  the 
east.^  It  accordingly  seems  probable  that  for  hundreds 
of  years  the  name  Yahweh  may  have  been  known  in 
north  Arabia  and  that  emigrants  from  this  region  had 
carried  it  into  Babylonia  and  Palestine  before  the  time 
of  Moses. 

The  Yahweh  of  this  ancient  time,  as  an  Arabian 
tribal  god,  was  believed  to  give  the  tribe  its  life  and 
to  do  whatever  a  supernatural  being  could  do  for  his 
people.  Like  other  Semitic  tribal  deities  he  was  be- 
lieved especially  to  preside  over  the  functions  of  life. 
He  "opened  the  womb"  (Gen.  29:31;  30:22;  49: 
25 ;  Exod.  13  :  2 ;  Ps.  127 :  3),  or  "  shut  up  the  womb  " 
(I  Sam.  I  :  5,  6).  So  sacred  were  the  genitals  to  him 
that  oaths  by  Yahweh  were  taken  upon  them  (Gen. 
24 :  2 )  .2  It  was  he  who  caused  grass  and  trees  to  grow ; 
who  caused  volcanoes  to  upheave  (Gen.  19:  24;  Exod. 
19:  18)  ;  who  manifested  himself  in  cloud  and  thunder 
and  lightning  (Ps.  18:  7  ff.;  Judg.  5:4;  Ezek.  i:  4  ff.; 
Hab.  3:  4  ff. ;  Job.  38:  i;  Sam.  7:  10;  Job  38:  25). 
These  were  natural  activities  which  every  Semitic  tribe 

1  For  further  details  see  the  writer's  article,  "  Yahweh  before  Moses," 
in  Studies  in  the  History  of  Religion  presented  to  Craivford  Hoivell  Toy, 
New  York,  1912,  and  the  numerous  references  to  other  literature  there 
given. 

2  Probably  the  name  Yahweh  originated  in  the  Arabic  dialect  spoken 
by  these  tribes,  coming  from  the  verb  ha^iya,  "  to  love  passionately,"  or 
"desire,"  meaning  "He  who  causes  to  desire."  (See  the  discussions 
by  the  present  writer,  cited  above.)  The  writer  of  Exod.  3:14  natu- 
rally, at  a  later  time,  took  it  for  a  Hebrew  word  and  explained  it 
accordingly.  Many  other  explanations  of  it  have  been  offered  by  dif- 
ferent writers. 


MOSES  AND  THE  COVENANT  WITH  YAHWEH      6 1 

that  lived  in  a  region  of  volcanoes  and  rain  attributed 
to  its  deity.  One  other  function  apparently  was  at- 
tributed to  Yahweh  in  these  early  days:  he  was  thought 
to  be  a  god  of  war.  In  ancient  wars  the  gods  of  the 
contending  tribes  were  thought  to  contend  as  really  as 
their  worshippers.  The  struggle  was  in  the  last  anal- 
ysis a  supernatural  one.  Any  victory  achieved  was  the 
triumph  of  the  deity  of  the  victorious  tribe.  The  Ken- 
ite-Midianites  appear  to  have  become  a  terror  to  the 
tribes  about  them,  and  to  his  other  functions  their  god 
naturally  added  those  of  a  god  of  battles.  A  later 
hymn  in  speaking  of  the  Exodus  declares :  "  Yahweh 
is  a  man  of  war  "  (Exod.  15:3),  and  one  of  his  pre- 
eminent titles  was  "  Lord  of  hosts  "  or  "  armies." 
Probably  it  was  his  reputation  for  giving  victory  that 
attracted  the  oppressed  Hebrews  to  him,  and  when  the 
promises  that  Moses  made  in  his  name  had  been  ful- 
filled and  they  actually  found  themselves  free  from 
Egypt  they  entered  into  covenant  with  him,  that  he 
should  be  their  God. 

There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  Yahweh  in  this 
early  Kenite  period  differed  materially  from  other  Sem- 
itic gods.  His  worship  was  no  more  ethical  than 
theirs.  Down  to  a  much  later  time  he  was  worshipped 
in  connection  with  pillars  and  Asherahs,  which  were  in 
part  sexual  symbols,  and  it  would  be  difficult  in  this 
early  time  to  distinguish  the  ceremonial  of  his  festivals 
from  the  festivals  of  those  nomadic  tribes  who  wor- 
shipped other  gods,  or  whose  deity  was  the  great  Sem- 


62  THE   RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

itic  goddess.^  Like  other  Semitic  and  Egyptian  gods 
of  fertility  he  required  circumcision  of  his  worshippers, 
and  also  demanded  animal  sacrifice. 

In  the  thirteenth  century  B.  C.  the  spiritual  period  of 
religious  and  ethical  conception  had  not  yet  begun. 
We  do  not  find  It  In  any  race  until  about  the  eighth 
century  B.  c.  The  religious  life  of  early  peoples  was 
much  like  that  of  children,  who  experience  the  psycho- 
logical emotions  of  religion  with  intensity,  but  whose 
interpretations  are  objective  and  anthropomorphic.  If 
the  traditions  of  Exod.,  chap.  3,  may  be  taken  as  a 
guide,  Moses  in  his  experience  of  Yahweh  at  the  burn- 
ing bush  gained  a  personal  Impression  of  the  power  and 
awe  of  Yahweh  that  possessed  his  whole  being.  He 
went  to  proclaim  to  his  brethren,  with  an  enthusiasm 
and  unction  born  of  very  great  awe,  Yahweh  as  a 
deliverer.  No  doubt  the  personal  conviction  created 
by  his  own  Impressive  experience  was  a  dominant  factor 
in  enabling  him  to  kindle  in  the  minds  of  his  kinsfolk 
a  faith  in  the  living  might  of  Yahweh  suflficlent  to  pro- 
duce action.  Thus  in  the  person  of  the  great  founder 
of  Israel's  religion  there  became  effective,  we  cannot 
but  believe,  those  forces  which  arise  from  a  personal 
experience  of  God.  They  took  the  childlike  form  ap- 
propriate to  an  immature  period  of  human  develop- 
ment, but  none  the  less  did  they  mightily  impress  the 
soul  with  the  majesty  and  awfulness  of  Yahweh  and  that 
terrible  quality  called  holiness  —  a  quality  which  at  that 

1  See  the  writer's  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  New  York,  1902,  p.  289  ff. 


MOSES  AND  THE  COVENANT  WITH  YAHWEH      63 

period  of  religious  thought  was  not  yet  ethical,  but  was 
conceived  as  a  sort  of  divine  electricity  with  which  it 
was  dangerous  for  one  not  Initiated  to  tamper.^  In 
lesser  degree  the  experience  of  Moses  was  probably 
shared  by  his  followers.  The  awe  and  power  were  kept 
frequently  before  them  in  the  storm  and  the  lightning. 
The  thunder  with  all  its  terrors  was  thought  to  be  Yah- 
weh's  voice.^  Thus  from  the  beginning  there  was  im- 
pressed upon  the  adherents  of  the  new  religion  that 
conception  of  Yahweh's  awfulness  and  majesty,  which 
at  a  later  time  was  destined  to  reinforce  in  the  Hebrew 
conscience  high  ethical  ideals. 

In  this  covenant  between  Yahweh  and  Israel  con- 
summated at  Horeb  lay  the  possibilities  of  future  ethi- 
cal development.  The  fact  that  at  a  definite  period  of 
national  life  —  a  period  ever  well  remembered  —  Yah- 
weh had  taken  Israel  for  his  people  placed  their  mutual 
relations  upon  quite  a  different  footing  than  the  rela- 
tions which  existed  between  any  other  god  and  his  wor- 
shippers. Semitic  deities  generally  were  believed  to  be 
bound  to  their  worshippers  by  ties  of  kinship  —  ties 
that  were  thought  to  be  indissoluble.  A  Semitic  god  of 
this  sort  was  like  an  Arab  sheik:  he  might  not  like  what 
his  tribesmen  did;  he  might  even  sulk  and  leave  them 
for  a  while  to  their  fate ;  but  in  the  end  he  was  compelled 
to  come  to  their  rescue,  for  If  he  did  not  he  would  be 

1  See  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2d  ed.,  London,  1894,  pp. 
141   ff.,  450  ff. 

2  Cf.  I  Sam.  7:10;  Ps.  104:7. 


64  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

cast  out  Into  the  world  alone.  He  would  not  only  be 
a  sheik  no  longer,  but  could  not  even  keep  alive.  So  a 
god  who  did  not  rescue  his  human  kinsfolk,  however 
unethical  their  conduct,  would  no  longer  be  a  god. 
There  was  little  possibility  that  such  religion  could  ever 
become  ethical. 

The  covenant  at  Horeb  placed  the  religion  of  the 
Hebrews  upon  an  entirely  different  basis.  Yahweh 
was  related  to  his  Hebrew  worshippers,  not  by  kinship, 
but  by  contract.  If  they  did  not  fulfil  their  part  of  the 
contract,  they  could  not  expect  him  to  fulfil  his.  He 
had  chosen  one  people;  he  could  cast  them  off  and 
choose  another.  He  was  bound  by  no  indissoluble  ties; 
his  fate  was  not  inevitably  linked  with  that  of  but  one 
people.  In  this  fact  lay  the  possibilities  of  Israel's  ethi- 
cal and  spiritual  progress.  Interpreting  as  the  prophets 
of  a  later  time  did  this  covenant  as  of  ethical  and  spir- 
itual content,  they  differentiated  the  religion  of  Israel 
from  the  other  religions  of  the  world  and  made  it  the 
earliest  beacon  of  humanity's  highest  destiny. 

The  potentialities  of  this  covenant  for  ethical  and 
spiritual  advance  lay  in  part  in  the  fact  that  at  the  mo- 
ment it  was  not  put  in  written  form,  but  was  committed 
to  tradition.  That  It  was  not  at  once  committed  to 
writing  is  clear  from  the  wide  divergence  of  opinion  In 
later  times  as  to  what  the  real  content  of  the  covenant 
was.  The  author  of  the  J  document  held  the  basis  of 
the  covenant  to  be  the  ten  ritualistic  commands  of  Exod. 
34:  14-28;  the  writer  of  the  E  document,  the  agrlcul- 


MOSES  AND  THE  COVENANT  WITH  YAHWEH      65 

tural  code  of  Exod.  20:24-23:19;  the  Deuterono- 
mist,  that  expansion  of  E's  code  into  which  a  new 
humanitarian  tone  and  greater  definiteness  of  ritual  had 
been  read,  which  we  now  find  in  Deut,  chaps.  12-26; 
the  priestly  writer  believed  it  to  be  the  great  body  of 
ceremonial  law  which  fills  the  last  part  of  Exodus  and 
all  of  Leviticus  and  Numbers;  while  to  the  great  proph- 
ets Amos,  Hosea,  Micah,  and  Jeremiah  the  essence  of 
this  covenant  did  not  lie  in  ceremony  at  all,  but  in  thor- 
ough fidelity  of  heart  to  Yahweh  exhibited  in  a  life  of 
ethical  justice  and  purity  among  men.  The  covenant 
became  of  creative  significance  because  it  was  sufficiently 
grand  and  awful  to  be  inspiring,  and  sufficiently  vague 
to  bear  reinterpretation  and  become  a  moving  ideal  — 
a  flying  goal. 

Of  the  various  "  codes  "  referred  to,  that  in  Exod. 
34:  14-28,  often  called  by  scholars  the  "  Decalogue  of 
J,"  is  on  many  accounts  more  likely  to  represent  with 
approximate  fidelity  the  content  of  the  covenant  in  the 
time  of  Moses  than  any  of  the  others.  This  is  prob- 
able (i)  because  it  consists  for  the  most  part  of  simple 
ritualistic  requirements  appropriate  to  the  habits  and 
ideas  of  a  nomadic  people  of  that  age  and  country;  (2) 
because  the  other  codes  all  contain  agricultural  provi- 
sions which  presuppose  a  settled  agricultural  life  and 
are  inappropriate  to  the  nomadic  period  at  which  the 
covenant  originated;  (3)  because  these  requirements 
were  arranged  in  ten  simple  sentences  which  were  easily 
carried  in  the  memory  and  which  could  be  checked  off 


66  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

on  the  fingers;  and  (4)  because  these  provisions  are 
found  In  all  the  other  codes,  and  are  the  only  provisions 
which  run  through  all  four  Pentateuchal  documents.^ 
These  ten  rqulrements,  when  separated  from  their  pres- 
ent literary  setting,  appear  probably  to  have  been  as 
follows : 

1.  Thou  shalt  worship  no  other  god.^ 

2.  Thou  shalt  make  thee  no  molten  gods. 

3.  The  feast  of  the  Passover  thou  shalt  keep. 

4.  The  firstling  of  an  ass  thou  shalt  redeem  with  a  lamb ;  all 
the  firstborn  of  thy  sons  thou  shalt  redeem. 

5.  None  shall  appear  before  me  empty. 

6.  Six  days  shalt  thou  work,  but  on  the  seventh  thou  shalt 
rest. 

7.  Thou  shalt  observe  the  feast  of  ingathering.^ 

8.  Thou  shalt  not  offer  the  blood  of  my  sacrifice  with  leav- 
ened bread,  neither  shall  the  sacrifice  of  the  Passover  remain 
until  the  morning. 

1  See  for  proof,  Briggs,  The  Higher  Criticism  of  the  Hexateuch,  New 
York,  1893,  pp.  189-210. 

2  This  was  not  monotheism,  for  the  existence  of  other  gods  is  ad- 
mitted.    It  is  an  exhibition  of  Yahweh's  intolerance  or  "jealousy." 

3  The  command  now  reads  (Exod.  34:22):  *' Thou  shalt  observe  the 
feast  of  weeks,  even  the  ingathering  of  the  wheat  harvest,  and  the  feast 
of  Ingathering  at  the  year's  end."  Two  feasts,  which  occurred  more 
than  four  months  apart,  are  here  merged  Into  one  command.  Of  these 
the  first  Is  purely  agricultural.  Even  if  we  grant  that  some  wheat  may 
have  been  raised  in  the  wilderness  of  Sinai,  or  In  the  region  of  Aln- 
Kadesh,  this  was  only  at  the  extreme  western  limit  of  the  Kenlte- 
Mldlanlte  habitat,  and  could  hardly  have  been  produced  in  the  whole 
of  it.  The  date  harvest  was  an  annual  event  of  the  whole  region,  and 
probably  the  "feast  of  ingathering,"  which  afterward  was  made  a 
commemoration  of  the  grape  gathering,  referred  in  the  nomadic  period 
to  the  date  gathering.  See  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  New  York,  1902, 
pp.  Ill  ff.,  and  115. 


MOSES  AND  THE  COVENANT  WITH  YAHWEH      67 

9.  The  firstlings  of  thy  flocks  ^  thou  shalt  bring  unto  Yah- 
weh,  thy  God. 

10.  Thou  shalt  not  seethe  a  kid  in  his  mother's  milk. 


It  will  be  observed  that  these  ten  requirements  are 
nearly  all  of  a  ritualistic  nature.  That  is  what  should 
be  expected  from  a  nomadic  people  of  this  distant  age. 
For  a  long  time  after  this,  religion  consisted  not  of 
creeds  but  of  rituals.  The  customs  or  mishpats  of  the 
deities  must  be  observed;  if  one  were  faithful  to  these, 
no  one  asked  what  he  believed.  It  goes  far  to  establish 
the  historical  character  of  the  J  document's  account  of 
the  covenant  that  these  ten  simple  requirements  so  well 
accord  with  the  nature  of  the  religions  of  people  simi- 
larly situated.  They  are  easily  remembered;  they  are 
ritualistic;  they  are  fitted  to  a  desert  and  nomadic  en- 
vironment. 

Nevertheless  these  requirements  In  one  respect  con- 
tained an  unusual  element  —  one  in  which  was  the  seed 
of  progress.  Yahweh,  the  God  of  the  thunderbolt  and 
the  burning  mountain,  was  a  jealous  God.  Less  tol- 
erant of  rivals  than  other  deities,  he  demanded  that  his 
worshippers  worship  him  alone.  This  was  not  the  gen- 
eral Semitic  custom.  Gods  were  generally  regarded  as 
the  supernatural  proprietors  of  certain  districts,  and 
when  one  was  in  the  district  belonging  to  a  god  it  was 

1  It  is  supposed  that  "  firstlings  of  thy  flocks  "  in  the  nomadic  days 
stood  where  "first  of  the  first-fruits  of  thy  ground"  (Exod.  34:26)  now 
stands,  because,  as  noted  above,  the  harvests  of  grain  then  formed  no 
important  feature  of  the  economic  life. 


68  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISR^^EL 

both  the  polite  and  safe  course  to  pay  him  homage,  just 
as  one  would  pay  homage  to  an  earthly  potentate  if  one 
came  within  the  range  of  his  power  by  crossing  his  do- 
main (cf.  I  Sam.  26:  19).  This  custom  was  so  deeply 
ingrained  in  the  Semitic  character  that  it  was  long  be- 
fore this  first  condition  of  the  covenant  of  Sinai  was 
observed  by  Hebrews  generally,  but  it  was  ever  present 
as  a  demand  on  the  part  of  their  God  making  toward 
monotheism.  It  was  not  a  demand  for  monotheism;  It 
distinctly  recognized  the  reality  of  other  gods;  it  was 
not  even  In  theory  monotheistic.  It  was  but  an  expres- 
sion of  the  jealousy  of  Yahweh  which  his  worshippers 
naturally  attributed  to  a  god  whose  chief  avenue  of 
expression  they  believed  to  be  the  quaking  mountain 
and  the  burning  fire.  Later,  however,  this  command 
and  this  jealousy  came  as  powerful  aids  to  the  prophets 
as  they  sought  to  Impress  upon  the  people  the  higher 
views  of  Yahweh  and  his  will  which  had  been  born  In 
their  souls. 

Some  scholars  think  It  necessary  to  contend  that  the 
more  ethical  decalogue  of  Exod.,  chap.  20,  and  Deut., 
chap.  5,  originated  at  Horeb.  They  feel  that  somehow 
the  authority  of  the  ethical  commands  is  less  If  they 
came  from  the  prophetic  period  than  If  they  came  from 
Moses.  This  feeling  the  present  writer  does  not  share. 
Whenever  the  ethical  decalogue  was  written,  it  has  back 
of  It  all  the  authority  of  right.  God  has  made  the  mind 
of  man  capable  of  perceiving  the  right,  and,  when  once 
it  Is  perceived,  man  has  been  given  a  conscience  which, 


MOSES  AND  THE  COVENANT  WITH  YAHWEH      69 

stirred  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  never  lets  him  rest  without 
living  up  to  the  right.  There  Is  no  other  alternative 
except  to  eradicate  the  conscience.  When  once  the  ethi- 
cal decalogue  was  conceived  to  be  a  part  of  Yahweh's 
law  of  righteousness,  it  had  back  of  it  all  that  power. 
Had  It  originated  in  the  time  of  Moses  it  could  have 
been  enforced  by  no  greater  authority.  The  question 
of  the  date  of  this  decalogue  may,  then,  be  discussed 
dispassionately  on  the  external  evidence  alone.  Had 
it  originated  with  Moses,  It  seems  probable  that  all  the 
documents  would  have  contained  it,  as  they  do  the  ritu- 
alistic decalogue,  whereas  it  was  unknown  to  J,  the  old- 
est writer  of  all.  This  fact  seems  to  the  writer  decisive, 
and  this  view  is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  the  ethical 
decalogue  finds  a  more  appropriate  environment  in  the 
ninth  and  eighth  centuries  than  is  afforded  by  the  thir- 
teenth century  B.  c. 

One  other  feature  of  the  religion,  in  addition  to  the 
ritualistic  decalogue,  can  now  be  discerned.  Moses  in- 
troduced among  his  people  an  outward  symbol  of  Yah- 
weh  In  the  form  of  an  ark  or  box  that  could  be  carried 
from  place  to  place  (Ex.  25-45  passim).  According 
to  later  tradition  this  ark  contained  the  two  tables  on 
which  the  law  was  written  (Dt.  10:  5).  In  the  opin- 
ion of  many  modern  scholars  it  contained  a  sacred  stone, 
either  an  aerolite  of  meteoric  origin  or  a  stone  from 
Yahweh's  sacred  mountain.  To  this  ark  long  poles 
could  be  attached  by  which  It  could  be  carried  from 
place  to  place.     It  formed  a  suitable  sacred  emblem  for 


70  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

a  nomadic  people.  Similar  receptacles  for  their  gods 
are  portrayed  on  Babylonian  monuments.  By  the  Bab- 
ylonians they  were  used  only  on  festal  occasions,  when 
the  gods  were  carried  In  procession,  but  by  the  migratory 
Rachel  tribes  the  ark  was  In  frequent  use.  This  ark 
remained  In  the  possession  of  these  tribes  after  their 
settlement  in  Palestine,  and  plays  a  considerable  part  In 
the  early  history  (see  i  Sam.  3;  6;  2  Sam.  6).  It  was 
the  sacred  emblem  in  the  temple  at  Shilo. 

The  introduction  of  the  worship  of  Yahweh  by 
Moses  In  the  way  Indicated  has  been  held  by  many 
scholars  to  completely  account  for  his  becoming  the  God 
of  Israel.  It  would  sufficiently  account  for  it,  If  all 
Israel  had  been  in  Egypt,  If  all  had  come  out  at  the 
same  time,  and  all  had  participated  In  the  covenant 
made  at  Horeb.  If,  however,  the  Leah  tribes  were  In 
Palestine  a  century  and  a  half  before  this,  having  never 
been  In  Egypt,  and  if  the  J  document,  written  In  Judah, 
regards  the  worship  of  Yahweh  as  primeval,  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  in  Its  larger  aspect  Is  not  so  easy. 
It  has  been  customary  to  say  that,  since  some  of  the 
Kenites  settled  in  Judah  and  mingled  with  the  various 
strands  of  that  tribe,  the  tribe  of  Judah  might  naturally 
think  that  the  religion  of  Yahweh  went  back  to  the 
earliest  times.  If  we  had  only  to  account  for  the  atti- 
tude of  the  J  document,  this  would  seem  to  be  a  fairly 
satisfactory  account  of  the  matter,  for  In  that  case  only 
the  views  of  Yahweh  entertained  in  the  tribe  of  Judah 
would  need  to  be  accounted  for.     When,  however,  we 


MOSES  AND  THE  COVENANT  WITH  YAHWEH      7 1 

see  that  the  other  Leah  tribes  who  lived  far  to  the 
northward  are  said  in  the  song  of  Deborah  to  have 
obeyed  the  summons  to  war  Issued  in  Yahweh's  name, 
other  questions  are  raised.  Did  these  northern  tribes 
first  learn  of  Yahweh  through  the  settlement,  then  com- 
paratively recent,  of  the  Rachel  tribes  in  their  midst? 
Is  it  probable,  if  that  had  been  the  case,  that  they  would 
have  so  soon  manifested  even  the  slight  degree  of 
unanimity  and  devotion  portrayed  In  the  song  of  De- 
borah in  his  service?  It  does  not  seem  probable.  One 
naturally  turns,  therefore,  to  other  and  more  probable 
considerations. 

It  has  already  been  noted  that  some  of  the  Kenites 
settled  In  the  tribe  of  Judah  (see  Jud.  i :  17),  and  ap- 
parently became  merged  In  that  tribe.  It  is  by  no 
means  certain  that  such  fusion  between  the  Kenites  and 
Judahites  first  took  place  after  the  time  of  Moses.  If, 
as  has  been  shown,  the  Leah  tribes  had  during  a  part  of 
their  nomadic  life  made  their  centre  at  Kadesh,  It  is 
not  at  all  unlikely  that  they  must  have  often  come  into 
contact  with  the  Kenlte-MIdlanltes  more  than  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years  before  the  time  of  Moses.  Such  con- 
tacts would  be  sure  to  be  either  hostile  or  friendly.  If 
friendly,  they  would  take  the  form  of  a  more  or  less 
close  alliance.  So  far  as  our  records  Inform  us  there 
Is  no  memory  of  hostility  between  these  two  groups. 
It  seems  probable,  therefore,  that  the  fusion  may  have 
begun  long  before  the  time  of  Moses,  and  that  Yahweh 
was  a  god  known  to  the  Leah  tribes  before  their  settle- 


72  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

ment  in   Canaan.     Perhaps  they  had  a   more   or  less 
binding  allegiance  to  him. 

It  should  also  be  observed  that  some  of  the  Leah 
tribes,  and  possibly  all  of  them,  may  have  come  origi- 
nally out  of  northern  Arabia,  so  that  if  Yahweh  had 
been  known  in  that  region  for  a  thousand  years  before 
this,  to  the  consciousness  of  the  Leah  tribes  also  Yah- 
weh's  worship  would  naturally  be  primeval.  At  all 
events  it  seems  probable  that  in  some  way  the  Leah 
tribes  were  predisposed  to  the  worship  of  Yahweh  be- 
fore their  union  with  the  Rachel  tribes. 

However,  even  if  this  be  so,  it  was  the  experience  of 
the  Rachel  tribes  in  their  exodus  from  Egypt,  and  the 
work  of  Moses  at  the  burning  mountain,  that  in  all  later 
time  gave  character  and  direction  to  the  religion.  The 
awful  manifestation  at  the  burning  mountain  impressed 
the  making  of  the  covenant  with  the  Rachel  tribes  in- 
delibly upon  the  national  consciousness.  Yahweh's 
goodness  and  power  in  delivering  them  from  bondage 
eclipsed  any  traditions  that  the  Leah  tribes  had  of  him 
before,  so  that  in  later  ages  the  traditions  of  this  ex- 
perience became  the  common  possession  of  all  Hebrews, 
and  no  tribe  was  conscious  that  its  ancestors  had  not 
participated  in  it.  To  these  traditions  prophets  success- 
fully appealed;  it  was  these  memories  that  made  prog- 
ress possible.  Whatever  knowledge  of  Yahweh  may 
have  been  the  possession  of  the  Leah  tribes  before  the 
time  of  Moses,  it  was  the  point  of  view  given  by  Moses 
to  the  Rachel  tribes  that  prevailed. 


MOSES  AND  THE  COVENANT  WITH  YAHWEH      73 

Such  Is  the  outline  of  the  beginnings  of  the  religion 
of  Israel  as  we  can  now  discern  them.  Beyond  the  fact 
that  Yahweh  became  the  God  of  Israel  by  covenant  at 
Horeb  through  the  Instrumentality  of  Moses,  this  out- 
line Is  confessedly  hypothetical.  Nevertheless  the 
writer  believes  It  approximately  correct.  Yahweh  was 
a  jealous  God,  a  God  of  war,  a  God  who  could  give  to 
Israel  just  what  she  wanted — ability  to  gain  freedom 
and  to  conquer  enemies.  If  not  appreciably  higher  than 
other  Semitic  religions  of  the  time.  It  certainly  was  not 
lower,  and  the  poverty  of  the  steppe  kept  It  relatively 
pure  as  compared  with  the  cults  of  wealthy  agricultural 
communities.  It  had,  however,  in  It  new  possibilities, 
and  It  had  come  to  Israel  In  a  way  that  eventually  af- 
forded these  possibilities  the  opportunity  to  be  realized. 

From  these  simple  beginnings  the  best  religion  of  the 
world  has  sprung.  Illustrating  the  Master's  word:  "  first 
the  blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the  full  grain  In  the  ear." 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  Theories  of  Yahweh  before  Moses;  cf.  G.  A.  Barton, 
"  Yahweh  before  Moses  "  in  Studies  in  the  History  of  Religion 
Presented  to  Crawford  Howell  Toy  by  Pupils,  Colleagues  and 
Friends,  New  York,  1912,  pp.  187-204. 

2.  Theories  of  the  Origin  of  the  Worship  of  Yahweh;  cf. 
Budde,  Religion  of  Israel  to  the  Exile,  New  York,  1899,  pp. 
1-38;  G.  A.  Barton,  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  Social  and  Re- 
ligious, New  York,  1902,  ch.  vii ;  also  in  Hastings,  Dictionary 
of  the  Bible  in  One  Volume,  New  York,  1909,  article  "  Israel  " 
§  ii,  2  (p.  410  ff.)  ;  W.  E.  Addis,  Hebrew  Religion,  New  York, 


74  THE  RELIGION  OF  ISRAEL 

1905,  ch.  iii;  Marti,  Religion  of  the  Old  Testament,  New  York, 

1906,  ch.  i;  H.  P.  Smith,  Religion  of  Israel,  New  York,  1914, 
ch.  iii;  and  J.  P.  Peters,  Religion  of  the  Hebrews,  Boston,  1914, 
ch.  iii. 

3.  What  Decalogue  did  Moses  introduce?     Cf.  Barton  and 
Peters  in  references  under  the  preceding  topic. 


CHAPTER  V 

PRE-PROPHETIC    PERIOD    IN    CANAAN 

Influence  of  Agriculture  —  Canaanlte  Shrines  become  Yahweh's  —  Tra- 
ditions and  Ritual  taken  over  with  Shrines  —  Festivals  trans- 
formed—  Personal  Religious  Life  —  Use  of  Images  —  Yahweh's 
Character  in  this  Period  —  Prophecy  in  this  Period  —  Hebrews  a 
Farmer-Folk  —  Solomon  an  Innovator  —  Ahab  and  Elijah  —  The 
E  Document  and  its  Decalogue  —  Date  of  this  Decalogue. 

The  conquest  of  Canaan  brought  many  new  elements 
into  Israel's  life.  The  change  from  nomadic  to  settled 
agricultural  ways  necessarily  produced  modifications  of 
religious  forms  and  conceptions;  the  cultivation  of  the 
grape  instead  of  the  date  palm  is  but  one  of  the  differ- 
ences which  led  to  the  new  interpretation  of  an  old  rite. 
The  Canaanites  were  subdued  only  in  part;  many  re- 
mained in  the  land,  to  be  gradually  absorbed  into  the 
Hebrew  nation.^  Accepting,  as  these  gradually  did,  the 
worship  of  Yahweh,  they  continued  to  believe  their  old 
myths  and  to  practise  their  old  customs.  Just  as 
heathen  myths  and  festivals  have  sometimes  been  intro- 
duced into  Christianity  by  giving  them  Christian  names, 
so  Canaanite  ideas  and  customs  inevitably  fused  with 
those  brought  by  Israel  from  the  wilderness. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  way  in  which  this  fusion  is 
exhibited  is  in  the  fact  that  the  old  shrines  of  the  land 
were  taken  over  and  became  shrines  of  Yahweh.     At 

ijosh.  15:63,  16:10;  Judges  1:21,  27,  29,  35. 

75 


76  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

Shechem  there  was  a  high  place  to  a  god  called  Baal- 
berlth  (Judg.  9:4)  or  El-berlth  (Judg.  9:46).  This 
became  not  only  a  shrine  of  Yahweh,  but  tradition  in 
time  attributed  its  origin  to  Abraham,  the  Hebrew 
(Gen.  12  :  6  ff.) .  Abraham  had  had  a  vision  there  by 
a  sacred  oak,  it  was  said,  and  in  this  vision  God  had 
promised  Canaan  to  his  descendants.  Bethel,  another 
old  Canaanite  sanctuary,  had  been  regarded  as  a  divine 
abode  because  of  the  peculiar  character  of  the  stones 
there.  At  this  point  the  limestone  vertebrae  of  Pales- 
tine protrude  through  the  soil  and  are  worn  by  the 
weather  into  curious  shapes;  these  led  early  men  to  be- 
lieve that  a  god  was  manifesting  himself  there.  The 
Israelites,  taking  over  this  sanctuary,  explained  the  be- 
ginnings of  Its  sanctity  by  the  story  of  a  dream  that 
Jacob,  their  ancestor,  once  had  there.  The  sanctity  of 
a  neighbouring  hill  was  accounted  for  by  the  tradition 
that  Abraham  had  built  an  altar  there.  Similarly 
Hebron,  another  old  shrine,  to  which  was  attached  a 
sacred  cave  similar  to  that  discovered  at  Gezer,^  became 
a  shrine  of  Yahweh,  where  Abraham  had  experienced 
a  divine  visitation  (Gen.,  chap.  18).  Veneration  for 
its  sacred  cave  was  afterward  accounted  for  by  the  tra- 
dition that  there  the  patriarchal  dead  were  buried 
(Gen.,  chap.  23).  The  sanctity  of  the  sacred  wells  of 
Beer-sheba  tradition  In  time  accounted  for  by  saying  that 
Abraham  had  dug  one  of  them,  or  had  planted  a  tam- 
erlsk  tree  there  (Gen.  21 :  22-33). 

1  See  Macalister,  The  Excavation  of  Gezer,  London,  1912. 


PRE-PROPHETIC  PERIOD   IN  CANAAN  77 

Two  Instances  of  the  transfer  of  Canaanite  shrines  to 
Yahweh  are  pretty  clearly  detailed  in  the  Old  Testament 
narratives.  At  the  foot  of  Mount  Hermon  the  Jordan 
pours  forth  from  a  subterranean  spring  as  a  full-grown 
river.  This  marvellous  and  sudden  appearance  of  such 
quantities  of  life-giving  water  marked  the  place  off  as 
the  abode  of  a  god  from  the  time  men  dwelt  in  its 
vicinity.  In  the  midst  of  the  period  of  the  Judges  the 
Hebrews  conquered  this  place  and  at  once,  without  de- 
lay or  compunction,  made  it  a  sanctuary  of  Yahweh,  in- 
stalling a  grandson  of  Moses  as  Its  chief  priest  (Judg., 
chaps.  17,  18). 

Jerusalem  also  was  not  captured  by  the  Hebrews  at 
first,  but  was  held  by  the  Jebusites  until  the  time  of 
David  (Judg.  1:21;  19:11-12;  II  Sam.  5:6-9). 
The  sacred  rock  and  cave  which  have  played  such  a  part 
in  Hebrew,  Christian,  and  Mohammedan  ritual  and 
tradition  were,  no  doubt,  a  part  of  an  earlier  Jebuslte 
shrine.  The  Jebusites,  with  that  hospitable  mingling  of 
things  sacred  and  secular  characteristic  of  Semitic  folk,i 
employed  their  sanctuary  as  their  threshing-floor.  This 
sanctuary  David  naturally  took  over,  and  the  act  was 
justified  to  Hebrew  thought  by  the  belief  that  Yahweh 
had  stopped  at  that  point  the  ravages  of  a  plague  (II 
Sam.,  chap.  24). 

The  taking-over  of  these  sanctuaries  Involved  the 
taking-over  of  much  of  their  traditions  and  ritual.  It 
meant  that  Yahweh  had  become  the  God  of  the  land  — 

1  Cf.  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2  ed.,  London,  1894,  p.  i45- 


78  THE  RELIGION  OF  ISRAEL 

Its  owner  or  proprietor  —  just  as  the  Canaanite  gods 
had  been.  The  term  Baal  (i.e.,  owner,  possessor)  had 
been  freely  applied  to  them;  this  term  was  now  trans- 
ferred to  Yahweh,  so  that  his  worshippers  called  him 
Baal.  Thus  Gideon,  an  enthusiastic  worshipper  of 
Yahweh,  bore  the  name  Jerrub-baal;  Saul  named  his  son 
Ish-baal;  David  one  of  his,  Meri-baal.  As  both  mon- 
archs  were  champions  of  the  worship  of  Yahweh,  it  is 
clear  that  they  intended  the  term  Baal  to  refer  to  him. 
The  prophet  Hosea  also  definitely  states  that  Yahweh 
had  been  called  Baal  (Hos.  2:  16). 

As  the  Baal  of  Palestine  it  came  in  time  to  be  believed 
that  Yahweh  was  connected  with  the  soil  of  the  land 
and  could  be  rightly  worshipped  only  upon  it.  This  is 
the  thought  which  underlies  the  request  of  Naaman  to 
take  two  mule-loads  of  earth  from  Palestine  to  Damas- 
cus, that  he  might  be  able  to  worship  Yahweh  there  (II 
Kings  5  :  17),  a  request  which  Elisha,  the  leader  of  the 
Yahweh  worship  of  his  day,  granted. 

As  God  of  the  land  Yahweh  became  the  God  of  agri- 
cultural law;  he  was  especially  interested  in  its  enforce- 
ment. As  a  natural  result  of  the  conquest  of  Canaan 
and  the  transfer  of  the  land  and  its  shrines  to  Yahweh, 
the  author  of  the  E  document  in  the  eighth  century  re- 
gards the  body  of  agricultural  laws  in  Exod.,  chaps. 
21-23,  as  a  fundamental  part  of  the  covenant  of  Yah- 
weh with  Israel.  These  laws  had  doubtless  been  a  slow 
growth;  they  were  the  outcome  of  a  long  agricultural 
experience.      Many  of  their  provisions  are   similar  to 


PRE-PROPHETIC  PERIOD   IN  CANAAN  79 

those  of  the  Code  of  Hammurapi,  which  had  been  pro- 
mulgated in  Babylon  before  2000  B.  c.  For  centuries 
before  the  conquest  of  Palestine  by  Thothmes  III  of 
Egypt  in  1478  b.  c,  Babylonian  influence  had  been 
dominant  in  Canaan  and  communication  with  Babylonia 
very  frequent.  At  times  the  country  may  have  been 
controlled  by  Babylonian  kings.  It  is  possible,  though 
hardly  probable,  that  some  of  the  laws  of  the  Book  of 
the  Covenant  had  been  shaped  in  some  slight  degree  by 
those  of  Babylon,^  but  Babylonian  influence  had  not 
been  controlling,  as  the  many  points  in  which  the  Book 
of  the  Covenant  diverges  from  the  Code  of  Hammurapi 
prove. 

As  a  part  of  the  transfer  of  emphasis  in  the  religion 
of  Yahweh  to  an  agricultural  basis  the  great  festivals 
were  transformed.  To  the  simple  Passover  feast, 
which  commemorated  the  yeaning  time  of  domestic  ani- 
mals, an  agricultural  offering  of  first-fruits  in  the  form 
of  unleavened  bread  was  added.  This  occurred  because 
the  first  ripe  grain  was  gathered  at  the  very  season  in 
which  the  old  nomadic  feast  fell.^  Seven  weeks  later 
a  new  agricultural  festival,  commemorative  of  the  com- 
pletion of  the  harvest,  was  added,  while  the  old  autumn 

1  Cf.  Kittel,  Scientific  Study  of  the  Old  Testament,  New  York,  1910, 
pp.  28-30,  and  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  Part  II,  ch.  xiii. 

2  A  similat  fusion  had  already  occurred  among  the  pre-Israelite  in- 
habitants of  Canaan.  They  too  had  come  from  the  Arabian  desert 
where  their  spring  festival  had  celebrated  the  birth-time  of  animals, 
and  had  joined  to  this  the  offering  of  first-fruits.  This  was  because  they 
too  had  been  subjected  to  the  same  agricultural  influences;  cf.  Barton, 
Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  New  York,  1892,  pp.  108  ff. 


8o  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

festival  of  the  date  harvest  became  the  festival  of  the 
grape-gathering.  Such  changes  were  not  peculiar  to  the 
religion  of  the  Hebrews;  they  had  been  silently  going 
on  for  centuries  wherever  nomadic  Semites  became  agri- 
cultural peoples. 

During  this  period  there  was  no  organized  priest- 
hood that  was  confined  to  one  family  or  tribe.  Micah 
could  make  one  of  his  sons  priest  in  his  temple  (Judg. 
17:  5)  ;  Samuel,  an  Ephraimite,  could  offer  sacrifice  (I 
Sam.  9:  13,  14;  16:  1-5)  ;  while  David  made  his  sons 
priests  (II  Sam.  8  :  18).  Nevertheless  there  was  a  feel- 
ing abroad  that  it  was  better  to  have  a  Levite  for  a 
priest,  so  that  when  one  appeared  Micah  put  him  in  place 
of  his  son  (Judg.  17:  10-12).  How  unorganized  the 
Levites  were  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  a  young  member 
of  this  class,  who  appears  in  the  sequel  to  be  a  grandson 
of  Moses,  started  out  like  any  other  young  adventurer 
to  seek  his  fortune,  and  accepted  successive  positions  as 
they  appeared  attractive  to  him  (Judg.,  chaps.  17,  18). 

After  the  settlement  in  Canaan,  while  these  changes 
were  silently  progressing,  the  religious  life  of  the  peo- 
ple went  quietly  forward.  In  the  charming  stories  of 
the  time  many  attractive  religious  scenes  are  graphically 
presented.  How  devout  souls  celebrated  the  festivals 
of  animal  sacrifices  from  year  to  year  and  poured  out 
their  hearts  in  private  prayer  is  portrayed  in  the  story 
of  Elkanah  and  Hannah  (I  Sam.,  chaps,  i,  2).  Han- 
nah's aspirations  move  in  the  sphere  of  the  objective 
world.     In  accordance  with  the  views  ingrained  through 


PRE-PROPHETIC   PERIOD   IN  CANAAN  8 1 

long  ages  Into  the  Semitic  stock,  her  chief  desire  Is  for 
offspring.  She  regards  Yahweh  as  the  giver  of  chil- 
dren, and  thinks  that  he  can  best  be  approached  with 
her  request  when  he  Is  brought  Into  especial  nearness  to 
his  people  at  the  feast,  and  his  heart  has  been  made 
warm  by  It.  Nevertheless  she  approaches  him  In  pri- 
vate prayer  without  the  Intervention  of  a  priest,  and 
affords  us  a  glimpse  of  that  beautiful  private  devotion 
and  personal  religious  life  which  in  greater  or  less  de- 
gree must  have  accompanied  Hebrew  worship  every- 
where. 

As  devotional  aids  the  Hebrews,  like  other  peoples 
at  the  same  stage  of  culture,  used  Images  of  their  deities. 
The  decalogue  of  J,  on  which  the  covenant  at  Sinai  was 
based,  had  not  prohibited  the  use  of  such  Images,  but 
only  of  expensive  Images.  "  Thou  shalt  make  thee  no 
molten  gods"  (Exod.  34:  17)  forbade  them  to  have 
Images  of  silver  or  gold,  but  left  them  free  to  use 
"  graven  images  "  or  cheap  Idols  carved  out  of  wood. 
Such  Idols,  called  Teraphim,  we  find  accordingly  In  the 
houses  of  the  best  of  the  Hebrews,  the  one  in  David's 
house  having  been  so  large  that  It  could  be  put  In 
David's  bed  and  passed  off  for  David  himself  (I  Sam. 
19:  13-16).  This  opened  the  way  in  time  for  more 
expensive  Images,  and  after  a  time  Yahweh,  like  the 
Baals,  was  symbolized  by  little  bulls  made  of  precious 
metal. 

That  Yahweh  was  still  emphatically  regarded  as  a 
God  of  war,  the  stories  of  Deborah,  Gideon,  Jephthah, 


82  THE  RELIGION  OF   ISRAEL 

and  David  attest.  So  much  was  this  the  case  that 
David,  Israel's  ideal  warrior,  was  regarded  as  a  man 
after  Yahweh's  own  heart  (I  Sam.  13:  14). 

In  spite  of  such  attractive  pictures  of  simple  devotion 
as  that  presented  in  the  story  of  Elkanah  and  Hannah, 
It  is  clear  that  the  conceptions  of  Yahweh  which  pre- 
vailed were  characteristic  of  the  hard,  crude  age  of 
which  they  were  a  part.  Jephthah,  for  Instance,  bar- 
gained with  Yahweh  for  victory  In  battle,  promising  to 
offer  in  sacrifice  the  first  living  thing  which  met  him 
on  his  return  home  from  battle.  When  victory  was 
won  and  he  was  met  by  his  only  daughter,  he  believed 
Yahweh  would  be  far  more  outraged  by  infidelity  to  his 
vow  than  by  the  horrible  gift  of  a  human  sacrifice. 
The  maiden  accordingly  became  a  victim. 

A  similarly  crude  conception  of  Yahweh  Is  reflected 
in  a  story  from  the  reign  of  David  (II  Sam.  21  :  1-14). 
A  famine,  caused  as  Palestinian  famines  usually  are  by 
insufl^cient  rainfall,  had  occurred  for  three  successive 
years,  and  the  minds  of  king  and  people  were  greatly 
exercised  to  ascertain  what  had  angered  Yahweh.  It 
was  taken  for  granted  that  In  some  way  he  had  been 
offended  or  he  would  not  withhold  his  rain.  An  oracle 
was  obtained,  which  explained  the  cause  of  Yahweh's 
wrath.  It  is  clear  that  the  oracle  came  from  the  sanc- 
tuary at  Gibeon,  whither  Solomon  afterward  betook 
himself  to  worship  (I  Kings  3:4ff.),  and  that  it  was 
manipulated  by  the  Gibeonite  priesthood.  The  Gib- 
eonltes  were  an  Amorite  clan  with  whom  the  Hebrews 


PRE-PROPHETIC  PERIOD   IN  CANAAN  83 

at  the  conquest  had  made  a  treaty,  promising  to  spare 
their  lives  (Josh.  9:3-15).  In  spite  of  this  compact, 
Saul  had  endeavoured  to  exterminate  the  Gibeonites, 
and  now  the  oracle  declared  that  Yahweh  was  angry 
because  the  innocent  blood  thus  shed  had  never  been 
avenged.  Seven  descendants  of  Saul  were  accordingly 
sought  out  and  delivered  to  the  Gibeonites  to  be  put  to 
death.  These  men  were  hanged  in  the  springtime,  just 
at  the  end  of  the  rainy  season,  and  their  bodies  were 
left  hanging  all  through  the  long,  dry  summer,  a  ghastly 
testimony  to  the  vengeance  of  Yahweh.  When  the 
rainy  season  once  more  came,  copious  showers  fell,  and 
we  are  told:  "  God  was  entreated  for  his  land."  The 
Yahweh  who  could  be  thought  to  punish  a  whole  land 
with  starvation  because  so  gruesome  a  penalty  for  sin 
had  not  been  exacted,  had  not  yet  been  conceived  as  a 
merciful  or  loving  being. 

Prophets  flourished  at  this  time,  but  they  were  of  a 
very  different  order  from  the  literary  prophets  of  a  later 
period.  In  all  parts  of  the  world  men  have  believed 
that  people  who  possess  such  peculiarly  excitable  nervous 
organizations  that  they  easily  lose  control  of  themselves 
and  fall  Into  ecstasies  or  trances,  becoming  unconscious 
and  speaking  in  a  broken  automatic  manner,  are  medi- 
ums of  divine  communication.^  The  ecstasy  Is  ac- 
counted for  by  the  belief  that  a  god  or  spirit  takes  pos- 
session  of  the   speaker   and   suppresses   his   humanity, 

1  See  Davenport,  Primitive   Traits  in  Religious  Revivals,  New  York, 
1905,  chaps,  i-iii. 


84  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

making  him  the  mouthpiece  of  a  supernatural  being. 
No  sharp  line  is  drawn  between  this  condition  and 
lunacy,  for  among  such  peoples  lunacy  is  regarded  as 
demoniacal  or  supernatural  possession.  The  early 
prophets  of  Israel  were  of  this  class.  The  distinguish- 
ing mark  which  denoted  that  King  Saul  was  a  prophet 
was  that  "  he  stripped  off  his  clothes  and  prophesied 
and  lay  down  naked  all  that  day  and  all  that  night  " 
(I  Sam.  19:24).  The  prophets  of  this  period  were 
men  of  such  peculiar  temperament  that  they  easily  fell 
into  such  ecstasies  (cf.  I  Sam.  10:  10).  They  were 
men  of  unstable  nervous  organization;  Saul  himself, 
afterward  became  insane.  Indeed  the  Hebrew  word 
for  "  prophesy,"  which  means  to  "  utter  in  a  low  voice," 
"  to  bubble  over  with  speech,"  is  applied  both  to  prophet 
and  to  lunatic. 

It  was  out  of  men  of  this  sort  that  Israel's  guilds  of 
professional  prophets  were  organized.  They  cherished 
the  arts  by  which  ecstatic  states  could  be  produced,  and 
lived  from  the  fees  given  them  by  their  credulous  coun- 
trymen. Such  prophecy  not  only  had  a  basis  in  natural 
phemonena  common  to  others,  but  is  clearly  traceable 
among  the  Canaanites.  An  interesting  Egyptian  docu- 
ment, the  "  Report  of  Wenamon,"  written  about  iioo 
B.  c,  describes  a  well-defined  instance  of  this  class  of 
frenzied  or  ecstatic  prophecy  at  Gebal  in  Phoenicia.^ 
Such  prophecy  was  common,  therefore,  to  the  Semites 
of   the    whole    region.     The    prophets    of   this    period 

1  See  Breasted,  Ancient  Records,  Egypt,  IV,  p.  380,  §  570. 


PRE-PROPHETIC  PERIOD   IN  CANAAN  85 

sometimes,  perhaps,  relied  upon  other  arts.  Samuel  is 
called  a  seer  (I  Sam.  9:9)  and  his  functions  seem  to 
have  been  legitimately  regarded  as  those  of  a  man  who 
for  a  small  sum  would  Inform  people  where  to  find  lost 
property.  "  Seer  "  was  the  name  given  by  the  Bab- 
ylonians to  priests  who  gave  forth  oracles  from  the  in- 
spection of  the  livers  of  victims,^  and  it  Is  possible  that 
Samuel  belonged  to  this  class.  It  Is  noteworthy  that  he 
had  celebrated  a  sacrifice  the  day  before  he  gave  his 
oracle  to  Saul. 

One  can  hardly  emphasize  too  strongly  the  fact  that 
the  Hebrews  had  become  thoroughly  agricultural.  We 
have  noted  this  In  contrast  to  the  nomadic  life  of  the 
wilderness,  but  It  is  equally  striking  in  contrast  with  the 
urban  and  commercial  clviUzatlon  of  Phoenicia,  Bab- 
ylonia, and  Egypt.  In  these  three  countries  the  gods 
had  their  temples  or  houses,  decorated  with  many  orna- 
ments, adorned  with  expensive  furniture  and  hangings, 
where  they  were  served  with  Implements  of  bronze  and 
vessels  of  silver  and  gold.  In  striking  contrast  to  this 
were  the  Hebrew  high  places,  where  under  the  open  sky 
rude  stone  pillars  and  an  altar  of  earth  or  unhewn  stone 
constituted  the  simple  sanctuary  —  a  sanctuary  which 
remained  the  orthodox  type  down  to  the  composition 
of  the  E  document,  about  750  B.  c.  (Exod.  20:  24-26). 
The  ephemeral  temple  at  Shilo    (I  Sam.,  chaps.   1-3) 

1  See  Jastrow,  Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  in  Babylonia,  New  York, 
1911,  pp.  158  ff.,  and  198  ff.;  also  Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  XXVIII, 
pp.  42-56. 


86  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

was  an  exception  to  the  general  rule  among  the  He- 
brews. Their  God,  like  themselves,  lived  in  the  open 
air;  he  was  pleased  with  rude,  natural  implements. 
The  products  of  the  forge  and  the  smith  were  an  abomi- 
nation to  him. 

Solomon  was  an  innovator.  Seeking  to  make  his 
people  a  commercial  people  and  to  beautify  his  capital 
after  the  manner  of  the  commercial  nations,  he  erected 
a  splendid  temple  at  Jerusalem,  adorned  it  in  the  Phoe- 
nician fashion,  equipped  it  with  an  unorthodox  bronze 
altar,  and  a  great  variety  of  bronze  implements. 
Though  this  temple  in  later  ages  was  looked  back  upon 
as  the  ideal  House  of  God,  it  impressed  his  contempo- 
raries very  differently.  It  was  reaction  against  such  re- 
ligious innovations  as  well  as  against  burdensome  taxa- 
tion, which  enabled  Jeroboam  to  rend  the  kingdom 
asunder.  Jeroboam,  when  he  said:  "  Behold  thy  God, 
O  Israel,  who  brought  thee  up  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  " 
(I  Kings  12:  28),  was  not  a  religious  innovator,  but  a 
religious  conservative. 

The  innovations  of  Solomon  affected  but  one  shrine 
in  the  land,  the  shrine  of  Jerusalem,  and  that  one  of  the 
newest.  Not  more  than  forty  years  had  passed  since 
Jerusalem  had  come  into  the  possession  of  the  Hebrews. 
Nevertheless  it  was  one  of  the  influences  which  produced 
political  revolution.  It  was  not  till  a  century  later  that 
the  introduction  of  the  religious  practices  of  a  commer- 
cial and  artisan  people  led  to  religious  revolt. 

During  the  first  three  centuries  of  Israel's  residence 


PRE-PROPHETIC  PERIOD   IN  CANAAN  87 

in  Palestine,  while  the  transformation  outlined  above 
was  going  on,  it  would  have  been  hard  to  distinguish 
the  religion  of  Israel  from  the  religions  of  her  neigh- 
bours. The  elements  noted  in  the  previous  chapter 
which  made  for  higher  ethical  and  spiritual  views  were 
In  abeyance.  The  seed  was  germinating;  the  time  for 
fruitage  had  not  yet  come. 

In  the  reign  of  Ahab  In  the  ninth  century  a  change 
began.  Ahab  had  married  Jezebel,  a  daughter  of  Eth- 
baal,  king  of  Tyre,  and  had  built  for  her  shrines  to  her 
native  god,  Melkart  of  Tyre  (I  Kings  16:31  ff.). 
Ahab  was  also  led  in  his  assertion  of  regal  power  to 
trespass  on  the  ancestral  rights  of  Naboth.  The  He- 
brews had  from  the  beginning  been  free  tribesmen,  and, 
as  among  the  Arabs,  there  was  a  strong  democratic 
spirit  among  them.  They  had  never  taken  kindly  to 
the  ways  of  splendid  monarchs.  They  could  be  loyal  to 
a  man  of  the  people,  like  David,  but  against  the  ways 
of  Solomon  they  had  revolted.  Ahab's  seizure  of  Na- 
both's  vineyard  caused  deep  popular  resentment. 

At  this  moment  a  new  element  appeared  in  the  national 
life  In  the  advent  of  Elijah  of  Tishbeh  In  Gilead,  who 
represented  the  old  nomadic  ideal  of  Yahweh's  re- 
ligion. The  people  to  the  east  of  the  Jordan  had  never 
been  as  fully  agriculturalized  as  those  who  dwelt  to  the 
west  of  the  river.  The  fertile  lands  merge  gradually 
into  the  desert,  and  from  the  desert  new  reinforcements 
of  nomads  were  ever  coming.  Among  these  the  no- 
madic ideal  of  Yahweh  still  remained.     All  more  civil- 


88  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

ized  forms  of  life  were  considered  abominations  to  him. 
To  live  in  houses,  or  to  drink  wine,  as  settled  Hebrews 
did,  was  considered  wrong  by  some.^  Such  ideas  were 
not  indeed  confined  to  the  trans-Jordanic  country,  for 
they  find  ample  expression  in  the  J  document,  written 
during  this  century  in  Judah.  Its  author  represents  all 
progress  in  civilization,  the  tilling  of  the  soil,  the  wear- 
ing of  clothing,  the  invention  of  metal-working,  music, 
etc.,  as  the  result  of  sin.  Of  this  ideal,  Elijah  was  a 
militant  representative.^ 

Into  the  social  ferment  of  Israel  there  thus  came  in 
the  reign  of  Ahab  three  religious  ideals.  The  agricul- 
tural Yahweh,  who  fostered  the  land  with  its  wheat 
fields  and  vineyards,  and  was  worshipped  in  the  high 
places  as  a  Baal,  was  one;  the  Yahweh  or  Baal  of  an 
artisan  and  commercial  people  —  the  Baal  of  Tyre  wor- 
shipped with  bronze  altars  and  luxurious  ritual,  like  the 
Yahweh  of  Solomon's  temple  —  was  the  second;  the  sim- 
ple Yahweh  of  the  wilderness,  to  whom  the  arts  and 
luxuries  of  even  a  simple  agricultural  community  were 
foreign  —  the  Yahweh  whose  prophet  and  champion 
was  Elijah  —  was  the  third. 

Elijah  linked  the  rights  of  the  people  with  his  presen- 
tation of  his  austere  Yahweh  and  as  a  divinely  sent 
messenger  boldly  opposed  the  king.  By  him  the  king 
was  regarded  as  the  representative  of  a  hated  foreign 

1  Cf.  II  Kings  lo:  15  and  Jer.,  chap.  35. 

2  See  Budde,  Religion  of  Israel  to  the  Exile,  New  York,  1899,  chap,  iv; 
and  Barton,  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  New  York,  1892,  pp.  300  if. 


PRE-PROPHETIC  PERIOD   IN  CANAAN  89 

cult  —  a  cult  of  rich  and  commercial  Tyre  —  a  cult  im- 
pure with  manufactured  implements  and  ceremonies 
which  in  idle  luxury  were  made  to  pander  to  basest  lust. 
Thus  began  that  social  and  religious  ferment,  which  went 
on  for  centuries,  awakening  gradually  the  Hebrew  con- 
science. It  called  Into  existence  the  great  Hebrew 
prophets,  and  ultimately  lifted  the  Hebrew  religion  to 
the  highest  plane  attained  by  any  pre-Christian  faith. 

After  the  first  manifestation  of  this  new  spirit  in  the 
person  of  Elijah  there  came  a  time  of  apparent  retro- 
gression. Ellsha  was  by  no  means  the  spiritual  equal  of 
his  great  predecessor.  He  was  the  leader  of  the  guild 
of  ecstatic  prophets,  and  once  when  an  oracle  was  re- 
quired of  him,  employed  artificial  means  to  produce  the 
prophetic  ecstasy  In  himself  (II  Kings  3:  15).  Ellsha 
anointed  Jehu  to  be  king  and  encouraged  him  In  the 
name  of  Yahweh  to  undertake  a  reform.  Jehu's  treach- 
erous methods  and  bloody  massacre  of  the  devotees  of 
Baal  (II  Kings  10:  18-28)  reveal  anything  but  the 
dominance  of  an  ethical  spirit.  In  this  bloody  work  he 
was  aided  by  the  Rechabltes,  the  living  exponents  of  the 
nomadic  Ideal.  Their  religion  was  not  more  ethical 
than  that  of  the  bloody  king. 

In  spite,  however,  of  barbarities  perpetrated  In  Yah- 
weh's  name  the  century  between  Elijah  and  the  E  docu- 
ment was  not  without  fruit.  Spiritual  awakening  and 
ethical  advance  generally  occur  in  times  of  social  press- 
ure, and  the  fruitage  of  the  movement  begun  by  Elijah 
is  apparent  in  the  moral  decalogue  of  the  E  document. 


90  THE  RELIGION  OF   ISRAEL 

In  this  document  these  ethical  commands  stand  before 
even  the  agricultural  laws,  and  are  thus  given  special 
prominence.  Three  of  them  are  in  substance  identical 
with  commands  of  the  decalogue  of  J,  but  the  ritual 
features  of  that  decalogue  were  relegated  to  a  place 
among  the  laws  at  the  end  of  the  Book  of  the  Covenant. 
These  ten  commands,  as  then  set  forth,  were  simple  and 
brief.  While  negative  —  declaring  simply  what  must 
not  be  done  —  they  marked  out  for  all  time  the  ethical 
foundations  of  Yahweh's  religion,  and  prepared  the  way 
for  the  work  of  the  great  prophets  who  were  to  follow. 
Stripped  of  later  editorial  additions,  they  are: 

1.  Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods  before  me. 

2.  Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee  a  graven  image.^ 

3.  Thou  shalt  not  lift  up  the  name  of  Yahweh  in 

vain  (i.  e.,  thou  shalt  not  swear  to  a  lie). 

4.  Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy. 

5.  Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother. 

6.  Thou  shalt  do  no  murder. 

7.  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery. 

8.  Thou  shalt  not  steal. 

9.  Thou  shalt  not  bear   false  witness  against  thy 

neighbour. 
10.  Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbour's  house. 

In  this  decalogue  but  three  of  the  commands  are  iden- 
tical with  commands  in  that  earlier  decalogue,  which,  it 

iThis   command    goes   a   step   farther   than   the   decalogue   of   J   and 
prohibits  even  cheap  idols. 


PRE-PROPHETIC  PERIOD   IN  CANAAN  9 1 

has  been  conjectured,  goes  back  to  the  time  of  Moses. 
For  the  seven  ritual  commands  of  the  other  decalogue 
ethical  requirements  are  substituted,  or,  to  be  more 
accurate,  unethical  conduct  is  prohibited.  The  question 
naturally  arises:  when  and  where  did  these  commands 
originate,  and  how  were  they  substituted  for  the  corre- 
sponding ritualistic  commands  in  the  decalogue  of  J? 
These  questions  cannot  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowl- 
edge be  definitely  answered.  It  is  a  plausible  conjec- 
ture that  these  commands  were  conceived  by  Ehjah  and 
his  followers  to  be  more  in  accord  with  the  demands  of 
Yahweh,  the  champion  of  social  justice,  than  the  ritual- 
istic decalogue  of  J. 

Indeed  it  is  tempting  to  think  that  certain  features  of 
this  decalogue  were  suggested  by  the  trial  and  execu- 
tion of  Naboth  and  the  confiscation  of  his  property  by 
Ahab  and  Jezebel.  It  is  true  that  the  prohibition  of 
murder,  theft  and  adultery  are  regulations  that  suit  well 
any  period  of  Israel's  history.  They  record  the  people's 
ethical  aversion  to  deeds  that  must  for  a  long  time  have 
been  considered  wrong.  Similarly  the  obligation  to 
honour  father  and  mother  registers,  probably,  a  sense  of 
filial  duty  that  had  been  growing  from  the  time  of  the 
emergence  of  the  patriarchal  family.  This  is  not  true 
of  all,  however.  The  modification  of  J's  first  command 
to  read:  "Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods  before  me," 
or  "  in  my  presence,"  may  well  have  been  suggested  by 
Elijah's  war  on  the  Baals,  which  was  in  part  precipi- 
tated by  the  introduction  by  Jezebel  of  the  worship  of 


92  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

her  ancestral  Tyrian  gods.  The  prohibition  of  cheap 
idols  in  the  second  commandment  may  also  be  plausibly 
connected  with  the  same  effort  to  differentiate  the  wor- 
ship of  Yahweh  from  that  of  Baal.  "  Thou  shalt  not 
swear  to  a  lie,"  may  have  been  called  forth  by  the  dire 
consequences  of  such  conduct  at  the  trial  of  Naboth 
(I  Kings  21  :  lo).  The  commands  against  bearing 
false  witness  and  against  coveting,  which  conclude  this 
decalogue  may  with  equal  probability  have  been  sug- 
gested by  the  Naboth  incident.  While  some  scholars 
still  insist  that  this  decalogue  must  have  originated  with 
Moses,  because  no  later  period  seems  suited  to  its  intro- 
duction, the  hypothesis  that  the  impetus  to  its  compila- 
tion was  given  by  Elijah  and  that  it  was  compiled  among 
his  disciples  is  a  more  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  facts. 
As  the  basis  of  the  covenant  at  Horeb  had  not  been 
put  in  writing  in  the  time  of  Moses,  it  would  not  be 
difficult  in  the  course  of  a  hundred  years  for  the  belief 
to  become  general  in  the  northern  kingdom,  where  Elijah 
had  preached,  that  these  were  the  genuine  ten  commands 
of  Moses.  In  this  case  the  substitution  in  the  oral 
tradition  would  be  easy.  The  J  document,  written  in 
Judah  about  the  time  Elijah  was  doing  his  work  in 
Israel,  naturally  adhered  to  the  older  form  of  the  tradi- 
tion. 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY. 

I.  The  Influence  of  the  National  Traditions  on  the  Religion 
of  this  Period;  cf.  J.  P.  Peters,  The  Religion  of  the  Hebrews^ 
Boston,  19 14,  ch.  vi. 


PRE-PROPHETIC   PERIOD   IN  CANAAN  93 

2.  Religion  as  reflected  in  the  Early  Literature;  cf.  H.  P. 
Smith,  The  Religion  of  Israel,  ch.  v. 

3.  The  Temple  of  Solomon ;  cf.  articles  **  Temple  "  in  Hast- 
ings, Dictionary  of  the  Bible  and  the  Encyclopaedia  Biblica,  and 
"  Temple  of  Solomon  "  in  the  Jewish  Encyclopedia;  also  G.  A. 
Smith,  Jerusalem,  New  York,  1908,  Vol.  II,  pp.  48-82,  and  G. 
A.  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  Philadelphia,  19 16,  pp. 
193-196. 

4.  The  Development  of  Priesthood  in  this  Period ;  cf .  J.  P. 
Peters,  Religion  of  the  Hebrezus,  ch.  vii. 

5.  The  Date  of  the  Decalogue;  cf.  G.  A.  Barton,  A  Sketch 
of  Semitic  Origins,  Social  and  Religious,  New  York,  1902,  pp. 
292-295,  and  in  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible  in  One  Vol- 
ume, pp.  410,  411;  J.  P.  Peters,  The  Religion  of  the 
Hebrews,  pp.  96-1 10;  Morris  Jastrow,  Jr.,  Hebrew  and 
Babylonian  Traditions,  New  York,  19 14,  pp.  162  ff.  174.  184, 
and  283;  W.  F.  Bade,  The  Old  Testament  in  the  Light  of  To- 
day, Boston,  1916,  pp.  87-131,  and  the  articles  on  '*  The  Mosaic 
Origin  of  the  Decalogue  "  by  J.  E.  McFadyen  in  The  Expositor 
for  19 16. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    PROPHETS   OF  THE    EIGHTH    CENTURY 

The  Great  Personalities  —  Amos  and  Monotheism  —  Yahweh's  Demands 
Ethical  —  Ritual  denounced  —  Amos  preached  Fear;  Hosea,  Love  — 
Hosea's  Marriage  —  Isaiah's  Message  —  Critical  Theories  —  Isaiah's 
Messianic  Hope  —  The  Message  of  Micah  —  Isaiah  and  Sen- 
nacherib—  Jerusalem  Yahweh's  Dwelling-Place  —  Isaiah's  Com- 
promise with  Ritual  —  Hezekiah's  Reform. 

The  history  of  every  great  religion  is  at  times  the  his- 
tory of  a  great  man  or  a  group  of  great  men.  Spiritual 
and  ethical  Insight  comes  to  great  souls,  and  It  is  only  as 
they  lift  their  fellows  to  their  own  level  that  advances 
are  made.  It  thus  happens  that  the  progress  of  the 
religion  of  Israel  in  the  eighth  century  B.C.  is  bound  up 
with  the  personal  experiences  and  thoughts  of  four  men 
— Amos,  Hosea,  Isaiah,  MIcah. 

As  noted  in  a  previous  chapter,  the  ninth  and  eighth 
centuries  B.C.  were  times  of  great  ferment  in  Israel,  and 
In  this  ferment  a  new  social  conscience  had  been  born. 
Elijah,  in  the  ninth  century,  had  been  its  exponent,  and 
the  author  of  the  E  document  had  collected  social  laws 
shaped  in  response  to  it,  but  with  the  shepherd-prophet 
Amos,  the  earliest  of  the  eighth-century  literary  proph- 
ets, there  began  a  new  movement  upward  and  forward. 

The  teaching  of  Amos  embodied  four  important  ele- 
ments, two  of  which,  if  not  entirely  new,  were  put  with 
such  new  emphasis  as  to  be  practically  so. 

94 


THE  PROPHETS  OF  THE  EIGHTH   CENTURY     95 

The  first  of  these  elements  or  doctrines  is  monotheism. 
The  monotheism  of  Amos  was  not  a  philosophical  theory 
of  the  universe;  Amos  did  not  declare  that  there  is  and 
can  be  only  one  God.  It  was  a  practical  monotheism 
reached  apparently  in  consequence  of  the  prophet's  per- 
sonal experience  of  the  righteousness  and  power  of 
Yahweh.  However  he  attained  his  faith,  Amos  clearly 
believed  that  Yahweh  ruled  all  the  nations.  He  does 
not,  like  the  E  document,  recognize  the  reality  of  other 
gods,  nor  like  Jeremiah  formally  deny  their  existence. 
He  simply  ignores  them  and  tells  how  Yahweh  rules  the 
nations.  Yahweh  brought  the  Philistines  from  Caphtor 
and  the  Aramaeans  from  Kir  (Amos  9:7).  The  Phil- 
istines, Damascus,  Moab,  Edom,  and  all  the  nations 
mentioned  are  responsible  to  Yahweh  for  their  acts  and 
are  to  be  judged  by  him  ( chaps.  1,2). 

This  monotheistic  thought  of  the  shepherd  of  Tekoah 
was  big  with  the  fate  of  the  progress  of  the  race. 
Egypt's  thinkers  had  begun  to  grope  after  a  sort  of 
monotheistic  thought  earlier  than  the  fourteenth  century, 
but  never  really  reached  it  in  any  practical  way.  Of  the 
conceptions  proposed  by  Ikhnaton  (Amenophis  IV) 
they  would  have  none.^  The  Babylonian  priests  at 
some  period  had  conceived  all  the  other  gods  as  differ- 
ent forms  of  Marduk^  but  the  conception  had  never 

1  See  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  2nd  ed.,  New  York,  1909,  chap,  xviii, 
and  Steindorf,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  New  York,  1905,  pp. 

57  ff. 

2  See  the  text  translated  by  Pinches  in  the   Transactions  of  the  Vic- 
toria  Institute,  XXVIII,  pp.  8  f. 


96  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

become  of  practical  religious  value.  In  India,  perhaps 
as  early  as  Amos,  men  were  talking  of  the  Brahma,  or 
Brahma-Atman,  as  the  ultimate  principle  of  life,^  but 
potent  as  the  idea  was  in  later  Indian  thought,  It  never 
exerted  the  creatively  ethical  influence  upon  the  race  that 
the  monotheism  of  Amos  has  done.  Some  ^  have  sup- 
posed that  Amos  was  influenced  by  the  abstract  thought 
of  the  priesthoods  of  Egypt  and  Babylon  —  that  he  gave 
practical  expression  to  a  monotheistic  conception  that 
was,  as  it  were.  In  the  air.  In  reality  there  was  no  such 
conception  in  the  air  even  in  Babylon.^  When  one  sees 
how  unaffected  Palestinian  shepherds  today  are  by  sys- 
tems of  thought  which  have  dwelt  for  centuries  In  the 
cities  of  their  own  land,  he  Is  slow  to  believe  that  Amos 
was  at  all  influenced  by  speculations  of  distant  priest- 
hoods. Amos's  thought  grew  out  of  the  old  conceptions 
of  Yahweh  as  a  holy  and  jealous  God,  and  the  ethical 
and  spiritual  discoveries  of  his  own  soul.  It  may  have 
been  to  some  degree  aided  by  the  division  of  Israel  into 
two  monarchies  or  nations.  When  Yahweh  became 
the  God  of  two  nations  the  frontiers  of  religion  were  en- 
larged. If  he  controlled  two  nations  why  not  more  than 
two?^     Amos  applied  his  conception  of  Yahweh's  na- 

1  Cf .  Bloomfield,  Religion  of  the  Veda,  New  York,  1908,  pp.  87,  211. 

2  So  Baentsch,  Altorientalischer  und  israelitischer  Monotheismus, 
Tubingen,  1906. 

sCf.  G.  F.  Moore,  History  of  Religions,  Vol.  I,  New  York,  1913,  p. 
242,  and  G.  A.  Barton,  Religions  of  the  World,  Chicago,  1917,  p.  26. 

4  Cf.  J.  M.  P.  Smith,  "  The  Effect  of  the  Disruption  on  the  Hebrew 
Thought  of  God,"  in  the  American  Journal  of  Semitic  Languages  and 
Literatures,  XXXII    (1916),  pp.  261-269. 


THE  PROPHETS  OF  THE   EIGHTH   CENTURY     97 

ture  in  the  terms,  not  of  abstract  thought,  but  of  practical 
ethical  endeavour,  and  his  conception  and  his  application 
of  it  were  shared  by  the  other  literary  prophets  of  the 
century.  The  monotheism  of  Amos  became  effective  be- 
cause it  was  closely  coupled  with  his  ardent  champion- 
ship of  social  righteousness.  In  the  eighth  century 
Israel  was  economically  very  prosperous.  The  rich 
were  growing  richer,  the  poor,  poorer,  and  the  rich 
were  oppressing  the  poor.  Social  corruption  was  fos- 
tered not  only  by  wealth,  but  by  religion.  Amos  pro- 
claimed Yahweh  as  the  God  of  social  righteousness. 
Yahweh  demanded  justice  and  fair  play  for  the  op- 
pressed, purity  and  chastity  in  personal  life  (see  2 :  6,  7 ; 
5:11,  12,  14,  24;  8:4-7).  Yahweh  had  of  all  the 
nations  of  the  world  chosen  Israel  alone,  but  this  choice, 
far  from  being  a  guaranty  of  his  favour,  demanded  of 
her  a  higher  righteousness  (3:2).  In  this  aspect  of  his 
teaching,  Amos  continued  and  intensified  the  message  of 
Elijah. 

The  religion  of  Yahweh  as  conceived  by  Amos  was 
not  only  socially  ethical,  but  it  was  that  alone.  Ritual 
formed  no  part  of  it.  Sacrifices  and  burnt  offerings  had 
no  place  in  it.  These,  Amos  declared,  were  no  part  of 
Yahweh's  original  covenant  (5:25).  In  most  em- 
phatic terms  he  proclaims  Yahweh's  displeasure  and  even 
abhorrence  of  the  sacrificial  feasts  (4:4,  5;  5:21-24). 
In  that  age  of  the  world,  when  in  every  land  animal 
sacrifices  were  regarded  as  a  necessary  element  of  re- 
ligion, this  was  a  very  radical  position. 


98  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

As  the  message  of  Amos  was  a  call  to  righteousness, 
it  was  also  a  proclamation  of  punishment.  That  sin 
brings  doom  —  that  Israel's  sin  will  bring  punishment 
and  destruction  to  Israel  —  is  stated  by  him  in  many 
forms  (3:  2,  II,  12;  4:  2,  3,  12;  5:  1-3,  27;  6:  i,  2,  7; 
8  :  10-14).  This  threat  of  punishment  is  the  only  mo- 
tive for  a  righteous  life  which  Amos  presented.  He 
assumes  that  the  people  can  do  right,  and  that  if  they 
so  do,  all  will  be  well,  but  the  one  reason  which  he  urges 
to  persuade  them  to  righteousness  is  the  fear  of  doom. 

The  preaching  of  Amos  came  as  a  bugle-call  to 
awaken  the  conscience  of  the  nation.  Though  Yahweh 
was  bound  to  them  by  covenant,  not  by  kinship,  many 
had  lulled  themselves  into  security  by  the  heathen  doc- 
trine that  their  God  could  not  abandon  them.  Amos 
awakened  such  by  threatening  doom  to  wicked  Israel  — 
a  doom  all  the  more  sure  because  she  was  Yahweh's 
chosen  —  reminding  them  that  Yahweh  was  with  them 
only  on  condition  that  they  sought  good,  not  evil  (5  :  14, 

Great  as  was  the  message  of  Amos,  it  was  in  some 
respects  defective.  Fear  of  punishment  is  not  the  high- 
est motive  for  right  doing;  but  Amos  offered  no  other. 
Yahweh,  as  proclaimed  by  him,  was  an  ethical,  but  not  a 
loving  God.  As  Amos  portrayed  him,  he  was  cold  and 
unfeeHng.  These  defects  in  the  preaching  of  Amos 
were  soon  supplied  by  his  younger  contemporary,  Hosea. 
Larger  vision  of  God  has  often  entered  a  soul  through 
a  door  opened  by  sorrow.     According  to  the  view  of 


THE  PROPHETS  OF  THE  EIGHTH   CENTURY     99 

the  story  of  Hosea's  marriage  which  has  prevailed  for 
a  generation,  this  is  believed  to  be  true  of  Hosea.  A 
man  of  tender  and  loyal  affections,  he  had  married  a 
wife  whom  he  dearly  loved,  but  who  proved  to  be  untrue 
to  him.  As  he  yearned  over  her,  pondering  on  the 
heart-breaking  blight  that  had  fallen  on  his  life,  he  saw 
in  it  a  revelation  of  the  relation  between  Yahweh  and 
Israel.  The  covenant  of  Sinai  was  a  covenant  of  mar- 
riage. The  unethical  worship  which  was  practised  by 
Hebrews  all  about  him  was  in  his  view  really  worship 
of  Baal.  It  was  as  much  infidelity  to  Yahweh  as  Co- 
mer's life  with  her  lovers  was  infidelity  to  Hosea.  But 
the  heavenly  husband  was  not  less  loving  than  the 
earthly,  and  the  measure  of  his  own  unquenchable  love 
for  Gomer  became  to  Hosea  a  revelation  of  Yahweh's 
unconquerable  love  for  Israel.  Gomer  left  Hosea's 
home  and  led  the  life  of  a  fallen  woman  till  she  fell 
into  slavery;  Hosea  then  bought  her  back,  placed  her 
apart  where  she  was  protected  from  her  own  evil  pro- 
pensities, and  tried  to  win  back  her  affection.  So  he 
believed  Yahweh  would  bring  affliction  upon  Israel  — 
would  bring  her  into  the  wilderness  apart,  where  he 
could  court  her  again  and  win  back  her  love. 

Another  view  of  Hosea's  marital  experiences  has  re- 
cently been  proposed,^  which  rests  upon  a  less  forced 
exegesis  of  the  text.  According  to  this  view  Hosea  was 
a  prophet  before  he  was  married  at  all;  at  Yahweh's 

ij.   M.    P.   Smith   in   the  Biblical   World,   XLII,   94-101,   and   Amos, 
Hosea,  and  Micah  in  the  Bible  for  Home  and  School,  p.  80  f. 


lOO  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

command  he  married  a  woman  of  the  street,  known  to 
be  a  harlot,  and  gave  to  the  children  born  of  the  union 
names  which  had  a  prophetic  significance.  This  was  all 
done  as  an  object  lesson  to  Israel.  According  to  this 
view  Hosea  regarded  himself  as  the  spokesman  and  rep- 
resentative of  Yahweh.  Anything  that  he  regarded  as 
Yahweh's  command  had  binding  force  upon  him.  That 
the  action  was  abnormal  would  not  deter  him,  for  many 
of  the  prophets  adopted  abnormal  courses  in  order  for- 
cibly to  express  by  symbol  Yahweh's  will.^  The  action 
of  the  prophet  was  not  designed  to  express  the  way  in 
which  the  relations  which  existed  between  Yahweh  and 
Israel  began,  but  the  condition  in  which  they  actually 
were  at  the  time.  According  to  this  theory  the  story  of 
Hosea's  marriage  emphasizes  his  self-sacrifice  as  a 
prophet,  but  leaves  unexplained  how  he  became  a 
prophet. 

Whatever  doubt  may  attach  to  interpretations  of  the 
story  of  Hosea's  marriage,  it  is  certain  that  he  became 
the  prophet  of  the  love  of  Yahweh  —  not  love  as  it  had 
been  grossly  conceived  in  the  worship  of  the  old  Semitic 
goddesses  of  fertility,  but  the  pure  love  of  an  affectionate 
husband  —  a  love  that  survives  the  grossest  wrong.  In 
his  interpretation  of  the  love  of  Yahweh,  Hosea  sup- 
plied a  new  motive,  and  that  the  most  powerful,  for  re- 
form and  ethical  righteousness.  Israel's  sin  not  only 
injured  herself,  but  broke  the  heart  of  Yahweh.  Yah- 
weh did  not  stand  apart  from  her  struggles  as  a  threat- 

1  See  Isa.  20:1-5;  Jer.  16:  if.;  Eze.  4:7-15,  24:16-18. 


THE  PROPHETS  OF  THE   EIGHTH   CENTURY      lOI 

ening  judge;  he  stood  ready  to  help  with  all  the  inspir- 
ing influences  of  an  infinitely  loving  companionship. 
Hosea  fully  shared  the  ethical  enthusiasm  of  Amos. 
He  falls  not  a  whit  behind  that  prophet  in  proclaiming 
Yahweh  as  a  God  who  loves  righteousness,  champions 
the  oppressed,  punishes  wickedness,  and  takes  no  delight 
in  ritual  and  sacrifices ;  but  he  employs  the  various  figures 
of  the  tenderest  family  relationships  as  symbols  of  Yah- 
weh's  love  in  his  endeavour  to  make  his  contemporaries 
realize  this  hitherto  unsuspected  aspect  of  Yahweh's 
character  —  this  new  interpretation  of  the  covenant  of 
Horeb  —  this  new  motive  to  righteous  living. 

In  the  kingdom  of  Judah  the  prophet  Isaiah  a  little 
later,  perhaps  before  the  death  of  Hosea,  took  up  the 
message  of  Amos  and  Hosea,  and  continued  in  various 
ways  to  proclaim  it  through  a  ministry  of  forty  years. 
The  great  poetic  gifts  of  Isaiah  and  the  close  relation 
in  which  he  stood  to  the  kings  Ahaz  and  Hezekiah  have 
made  his  name  the  most  prominent  of  all  the  prophetic 
circle,  so  that  the  work  of  other  prophets  has  been  at- 
tributed to  his  pen.  His  genuine  prophecies,  however, 
exhibit  the  same  monotheistic  conceptions,  picture  Yah- 
weh as  possessing  the  same  passion  for  righteousness  in 
his  people,  and  as  feeling  the  same  abhorrence  of  the  re- 
ligious ceremonies  of  unethical  men,  that  appear  in  the 
works  of  his  two  predecessors  (see,  e.g.,  Isa.,  i :  12-17) . 
This  gifted  aristocrat  and  adviser  of  kings  championed 
the  down-trodden  poor  with  all  the  ardour  of  the 
Tekoan  shepherd. 


102  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

Isaiah,  like  his  earlier  contemporaries,  saw  a  vision  of 
a  higher  religious  life.  He  believed  that  Yahweh  de- 
manded that  life.  It  was  a  life  essentially  ethical.  The 
ritual  of  the  day  with  costly  holocausts  had  no  place  In 
it.  With  all  his  gifts  he  sought  to  make  his  people  see 
his  vision  and  live  this  life.  Sometimes  he  compares 
Israel  to  a  stupid  child  (1:2,  3),  sometimes  to  a  vine- 
yard (5:  1-7).  In  each  case  Yahweh,  the  father  or 
owner,  is  keenly  disappointed  In  the  returns  which  he 
gains  from  his  possessions.  If  the  figures  are  not  as 
often  from  the  same  tender  sphere  as  those  of  Hosea, 
the  lesson  taught  is  the  same,  and  it  Is  embodied  in  poetry 
of  greater  literary  charm. 

In  one  respect  the  conception  of  Yahweh  presented  by 
Hosea  and  Isaiah  was  defective.  Both  thought  of  him 
as  caring  chiefly  for  Israel,  and  as  caring  for  other 
nations  only  for  their  Influence  upon  Israel.  Isaiah,  for 
example,  speaks  of  Assyria  simply  as  the  rod  with  which 
Yahweh  In  his  anger  Is  to  chastise  Israel.  When  the 
chastisement  Is  over,  the  rod  Is  to  be  broken  and  thrown 
away  (Isa.,  10:  5  ff.).  Yahweh  is  thought  to  care  no 
more  for  Assyria  than  a  father  does  for  the  switch  with 
which  he  whips  his  boy;  his  love  is  centred  in  the  boy. 

In  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah  as  they  have  come  down 
to  us  we  come  upon  the  beginnings  of  the  Messianic 
hope.  Before  considering  this,  however,  it  will  be  help- 
ful to  take  note  of  some  modern  critical  theories.  In 
a  series  of  articles  published  in  1881-1884,^  Stade  began 

1  In  the  Zeitschrift  fur  alttestamentliche  Wissenschaft. 


THE  PROPHETS  OF  THE   EIGHTH   CENTURY      103 

to  relegate  Messianic  prophecies  in  Isaiah  and  Micah 
to  the  time  after  the  exile.  This  work  has  been  carried 
forward  since  by  Soerensen,  Guthe,  Giesebrecht,  Duhm, 
Cheyne,  Hackmann,  Bruckner,  Volz  and  Marti. ^  In  the 
Commentaries  of  Marti, ^  the  movement  reaches  its  cli- 
max. It  is  held  that  every  Messianic  prophecy  must  be 
post-exilic.  Many  who  do  not  follow  Marti  entirely 
find  it  hard  to  detect  in  the  time  before  the  exile  definite 
periods  when  Messianic  prophecy  was  possible.  On 
the  other  hand  Gressmann  ^  and  Oesterley  ^  have  en- 
deavoured to  show  that  Messianic  prophecy  presupposes 
the  presence  in  Israel  of  certain  myths  out  of  which 
Messianic  expectations  were  woven,  that  these  myths 
were  actually  present  in  the  time  before  the  exile,  and 
that,  not  the  outward  circumstances  of  the  time,  but  the 
presence  of  these  myths,  makes  Messianic  prophecy  pos- 
sible in  these  centuries. 

Marti  and  his  school  are  wrong,  in  the  judgment  of 
the  present  writer,  in  holding  that  the  utterances  of  a 
prophet  must  all  fit  into  the  events  of  the  period  in 
which  he  lived,  as  we  in  looking  back  see  those  events. 
A  prophet  may  well  have  entertained  hopes  that  did 
not  in  all  details  come  true.     He  must,  however,  have 

1  See  the  excellent  summary  of  their  work  by  Fullerton  in  the  Har- 
fvard  Theological  Review,  VI,  pp.  478-520. 

2  His   Jesiah,   Tubingen,    1900,    and    his   Dodekapropheten,   Tubingen, 
1903,  1904. 

3  Ursprung    der    israelitisch-judischen    Eschatologie,    Tubingen,    1905, 
and  American  Journal  of  Theology,  XVII,  pp.  173-194. 

^Evolution  of  the  Messianic  Idea,  New  York,  1908- 


I04  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

had  hopes,  or  he  could  not  have  been  a  prophet.  It 
is  possible  that  there  may  be  some  elements  of  truth 
in  the  theory  of  Gressmann  and  Oesterley.  In  the  ut- 
terances of  an  Egyptian  sage  who  lived  more  than  2000 
years  B.C.,  the  conception  of  an  ideal  king,  who  once 
lived  on  the  earth  as  the  god  Re,  before  whom  all  in- 
justice flees,  is  set  forth.^ 

Several  scholars  have  thought  that  some  tradition  of 
this  ancient  Egyptian  ideal  may  have  reached  Israel  and 
have  been  cherished  there.  If  the  tradition  of  the  Tale 
of  Two  Brothers  influenced  the  Joseph  story,  as  we  have 
supposed  in  ch.  2,  it  is  possible  that  the  ideal  king  of 
this  Egyptian  sage,  Ipuwer,  may  have  also  been  cher- 
ished in  Israel,  and  may  have  influenced  the  Messianic 
idea.  Such  influence,  if  it  existed,  would  account  for  the 
name  "  god  of  a  warrior  "  in  Isa.,  9 :  6.  Such  influence, 
though  possible,  is  by  no  means  certain.  Indeed,  the 
more  the  present  writer  studies  the  messianic  prophecies 
of  Isaiah,  the  more  clear  it  seems  to  him  that  they  grew 
naturally  out  of  ideas  that  were  ready  to  Isaiah's  hand  in 
the  common  stock  of  Hebrew  thought,  and  that  the 
greatest  of  them  are  the  utterances  of  Isaiah  himself. 
This  seems  to  be  true  of  Isa.,  9 :  2-6  and  1 1  :  1-8. 

For  the  first  of  these  passages  (Isa.,  9:2-6)  there 
is  no  period  in  the  whole  course  of  prophetic  activity 
which  presents  so  fitting  and  probable  a  background  as 
the  war  of  735  B.  c. 

1  See  Gardiner,  The  Admonitions  of  an  Egyptian  Sage,  Leipzig,  1908, 
p.  78. 


THE  PROPHETS  OF  THE   EIGHTH   CENTURY      1 05 

In  the  time  of  Saul  and  David  the  king  himself  had 
been  the  Messiah  or  "  the  Lord's  Anointed  "  (I  Sam., 
24:  10;  II  Sam.  22:  51).  In  Isaiah's  time  the  glories 
of  the  Davidic  empire  had  long  passed.  In  the  year  735 
a  weakling,  Ahaz,  was  on  the  throne  of  Judah.  Two 
more  powerful  kings  were  threatening  Jerusalem. 
Isaiah's  hopes  leaped  forward  to  a  time  when  Israel 
should  again  be  ruled  by  a  worthy  prince.  He  took  as 
the  ideal  pattern  the  Assyrian  statesman  and  general, 
Tiglathpileser  IV,  describing  his  ideal  prince  as  a  Won- 
der-counsellor, a  god  of  a  warrior,  a  Father  of  booty,^ 
and  a  Prince  of  peace  (Isa.,  9:5).  He  was  to  be 
great  in  planning  battles,  terrible  in  fighting  them,  rich 
in  the  resulting  plunder,  and  great  in  ability  to  rule  the 
conquered  territory  in  peace.  This  is  the  ideal  of  a 
young  man  in  whose  veins  hot  blood  still  courses.  In 
his  later  years  the  prophet  drew  a  different  picture.  In 
these  hopes  of  Isaiah's  young  manhood,  however,  we 
have  the  first  powerful  literary  expression  of  an  ideal, 
which,  transformed  as  the  centuries  went  on,  exerted  a 
creative  influence  upon  Christianity.  Between  the  time 
of  Isaiah's  earlier  prophecies  and  his  later  ones  the 
prophecies  of  Micah,  chaps.  1-3,  were  uttered.^  Micah 
lived  at  Maresha,  called  in  the  Greek  period  Marissah, 
near  the  modern  Beit  Gibrin.     His  home  was  in  the  foot- 

1  The  word  translated  usually  "  eternal "  is  here  to  be  taken  as 
"booty,"  or  "prey"  as  in  Gen.  49:27. 

2  The  rest  of  the  Book  of  Micah  belongs  to  a  later  time  —  a  time  not 
earlier  than  the  seventh  century. 


Io6  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

hills  of  Judea,  just  on  the  Philistine  border.  His 
prophecies  were  uttered,  perhaps,  about  713-711  B.C., 
when  Sargon  chastised  Ashdod. 

Though  living  in  a  different  environment,  Micah  was 
thoroughly  at  one  with  the  other  prophets  of  the  cen- 
tury in  his  teaching.  Like  theirs,  his  faith  was  monothe- 
istic; he  believed  Yahweh  to  be  supreme  (cf.  i :  3,  4)  10- 
1 6 ;  3  :  I ) .  His  presentation  of  Yahweh's  demands  for 
social  righteousness  is  no  less  insistent  than  theirs  (chap. 
2).  The  cultus  of  the  period  with  its  sacrifices  and  im- 
moral practices,  he,  like  the  others,  denounces  (1:5). 
Finally  Micah's  threat  of  judgment  for  sin  falls  little 
short  of  that  of  Amos  in  the  intensity  of  its  earnestness. 
If  Micah  does  not  materially  advance  the  religious  teach- 
ing of  the  time  beyond  his  contemporaries,  he  is  thor- 
oughly abreast  of  them  in  proclaiming  the  creative 
thoughts  of  the  period. 

The  later  prophecies  of  Isaiah  which  in  this  hasty 
glance  we  have  time  to  notice  are  connected  with  the 
invasion  of  Palestine  by  Sennacherib. 

The  writer  agrees  with  those  scholars  ^  who  hold  It 
probable  that  Sennacherib  made  two  expeditions  against 
Judah.  In  the  first  of  these  In  the  year  701  B.C.,  Heze- 
klah  submitted  and  paid  a  heavy  tribute,  as  Is  recorded 

1  This  view  was  advocated  by  Winckler,  Alttestamentliche  Un- 
tersuchungen,  Berlin,  1892,  pp.  27-50;  Prasek,  Sanherib's  FeldzUge 
gegen  Jiida,  Berlin,  1903;  Fullerton,  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  LXIII,  pp.  577- 
634;  Rogers,  Cuneiform  Parallels  to  the  Old  Testament,  New  York, 
1912,  pp.  332-340- 


THE  PROPHETS  OF  THE  EIGHTH   CENTURY      107 

both  in  II  Kings  18:  14-16  and  in  Sennacherib's  own 
account  of  the  expedition.  A  considerable  portion  of 
Judaean  territory  was,  at  this  time,  given  by  Sennacherib 
to  his  Philistine  vassals.  It  was  on  his  second  expedi- 
tion, which  occurred  after  the  accession  of  Taharkah, 
king  of  Egypt,  in  the  year  691  or  688  B.C.,  that  the  dis- 
aster described  in  II  Kings  19:  9-35,  and  which  is  also 
mentioned  in  Herodotus,  occurred.^ 

Hezekiah,  contrary  to  the  advice  of  Isaiah,  had  joined 
a  coalition  to  throw  off  the  Assyrian  yoke.  Sennacherib, 
having  defeated  the  armies  of  Hezekiah  and  his  allies 
in  the  Philistine  plain,  sent  a  summons  to  Jerusalem 
to  surrender,  threatening  a  siege  and  destruction  if 
his  summons  were  not  heeded.  In  this  crisis  Isaiah 
declared  that  Yahweh  would  come  down  and  pro- 
tect Jerusalem  and  that  the  Assyrian  should  be  destroyed 
(Isa.,  31:5,  8).  The  prophet  could  denounce  unspir- 
Itual  ritual  (1:3),  but  he  really  did  not  yet  see  that  the 
religion  of  Yahweh  could  live  without  a  temple.  Some 
sort  of  external  form  was  necessary  for  the  faith;  some 
external  dwelling  necessary  for  Yahweh. 

The  faith  of  Isaiah  was  signally  justified.  Sennach- 
erib had  sent  his  main  army  to  inflict  punishment  upon 
Egypt,  the  strongest  member  of  the  coalition  which  had 

1  This  view  presupposes  that  Hezekiah  reigned  longer  than  is  usually 
supposed,  and  that  the  reign  of  Manasseh  was  somewhat  shorter  than 
the  period  assigned  to  it  in  Kings. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  not  all  interpreters  concur  in  this  view.  To 
the  writer  it  seems  most  reasonable. 


Io8  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

opposed  him.  While  on  its  way  to  Egypt  the  army  was 
attacked  by  bubonic  plague  ^  and  so  decimated  that  the 
Assyrian  had  to  withdraw.  Jerusalem  had  escaped;  the 
prophetic  word  was  vindicated;  the  power  of  the  hated 
conqueror  was  curbed. 

The  effect  of  this  event  was  far-reaching.  Yahweh 
had  not  permitted  Judah  to  suffer  the  fate  which  twenty 
years  before  had  overtaken  Israel.  He  had  shown,  both 
by  the  word  of  his  prophet  and  by  his  destruction  of  the 
Assyrians,  that  Jerusalem  was  indeed  his  dwelling-place, 
and  from  this  time  on  Jerusalem  occupied  a  new  place  in 
the  affections  and  faith  of  the  Jews.  The  lapse  of  more 
than  two  hundred  years  had  already  softened  the  aver- 
sion caused  by  Solomon's  departures  from  orthodox 
practices  in  the  equipment  of  the  temple,  but  until  this 
time  Jerusalem  had  been  but  one  of  the  many  shrines  of 
Israel.  From  this  time  onward  it  was  more  and  more 
regarded  as  the  earthly  home  of  Yahweh,  and  that  senti- 
ment grew  which  has  made  it  a  sacred  city  to  Jew,  Chris- 
tian, and  Mohammedan. 

If  we  are  not  mistaken,  it  was  in  connection  with  the 
events  of  Sennacherib's  invasion  that  Isaiah  uttered  an- 
other messianic  prophecy,  setting  forth  the  picture  of 

1  This  seems  the  real  ground  of  the  statement  of  II  Kings  19:5,  that 
the  "angel  of  Yahweh  smote  the  Assyrians"  (cf.  II  Sam.  24:i6ff., 
and  Acts  12:23  for  the  association  of  the  "angel"  with  sickness),  and 
of  Herodotus  (Book  II,  §  141),  that  Sennacherib's  camp  was  overrun 
at  night  by  mice  which  ate  up  the  bow-strings.  Bubonic  plague  attacks 
rats  and  mice  first  and  is  by  them  spread  to  human  beings.  Cf.  G.  A. 
Smith,  Historical  Geography  of  the  Holy  Land,  New  York,  1895,  pp. 
158  ff.,  and  Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the  Bible  in  One  Volume,  p.  403,  a. 


THE  PROPHETS  OF  THE   EIGHTH   CENTURY      I09 

e  messianic  kingdom  ^  which  now  stands  in  Isaiah  11  : 
-9.  The  foolishness  of  Hezekiah  and  the  ruthlessness 
Sennacherib  had  turned  the  prophet's  thoughts  again 
the  ideal  social  state.  In  his  youth  he  had  thought  of 
e  Wonder-counsellor  who  should  fight  and  conquer, 
10  should  make  Judah  glorious;  now  he  thinks  more  of 
e  social  nature  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  ability  of  the 
essiah  to  secure  justice  among  its  citizens.  With  lan- 
lage  of  marvellous  beauty  and  images  of  unsurpassed 
)wer  he  portrays  a  time  when  the  wanton  passions  of 
en  shall  be  subdued  to  a  higher  law,  the  cruelty  of  man 
man  shall  cease,  when 

They  shall  not  harm  nor  destroy 

In  all  my  holy  mountain, 

For  the  earth  shall  be  full  of  Yahweh's  knowledge 

As  the  waters  cover  the  sea. 

In  this  prophecy  the  social  forces,  the  social  conscience 
•  the  whole  eighth  century  B.C.  finds  its  highest  expres- 
3n,  as  well  as  the  faith  in  Yahweh  as  a  God  of  social 
^hteousness  which  had  animated  each  of  the  four  great 
•ophets  of  this  century.     These  men,  gifted  with  re- 

i  Marti  and  others,  of  course,  assign  this  prophecy  to  the  time  after 
;  exile.  Though  Duhm  had  granted  it  to  Isaiah's  old  age,  Gray 
saiah  in  the  International  Critical  Commentary)  holds  that  11  :i  im- 
es  the  fall  of  the  Davidic  dynasty,  the  word  translated  "  stock " 
!ans  "  cutting  "  or  "  stump."  The  present  writer  has  contended  else- 
lere  {Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  XXXIII,  p.  73)  that  the  Hebrew 
)rd  used  means  "cutting"  and  the  Palestinian  custom  of  cutting  off 
J  limbs  of  a  growing  tree  for  fire-wood  makes  it  an  appropriate 
jtaphor  for  a  reigning  dynasty,  many  of  the  members  of  which  had 
:d. 


no  THE  RELIGION  OF  ISRAEL 

llgious  Insight  beyond  their  fellows  and  endowed  with  a 
power  of  expression  unsurpassed  In  Its  reach,  while  com- 
prehensible by  the  most  untutored,  had  for  ever  made  It 
Impossible  for  men,  Into  whose  hearts  their  words  sank, 
to  rest  In  the  thought  that  religion  could  be  divorced 
from  ethics,  or  that  God  can  ever  be  pleased  with  the 
praises  of  those  In  whose  hearts  Is  no  pity  for  the  unfor- 
tunate poor  or  who  traffic  In  the  life-blood  of  their  fel- 
low-men. 

The  teaching  of  these  great  prophets  brought  to  a 
head  and  crystallized  Into  definite  form  the  protest 
against  the  baallzatlon  of  the  religion  of  Yahweh  which 
Elijah  had  first  raised.  The  causes  of  this  protest  were 
In  part  the  antipathy  which  people  usually  feel  to  re- 
ligious practices  other  than  their  own,  but  other  and 
worthier  motives  were  present  also.  Canaanlte  re- 
ligious customs  were  emphatically  more  sensual  than 
those  of  the  simpler  nomads,  and  against  these  sensual 
practices  the  awakened  conscience  of  the  prophets  re- 
volted. What  cause  they  had  to  revolt  he  only  fully 
appreciates  who  sees  a  high  place,  like  that  at  Gezer, 
excavated  and  beholds  the  countless  obscene  emblems 
which  were  offered  as  votive  tokens  to  the  deities  of  fer- 
tility. The  wonder  Is  that  the  teaching  even  of  men 
like  the  great  prophets  of  Israel  ever  lifted  a  peasantry, 
to  whom  such  sensual  Indulgence  was  religion,  out  of 
their  slough. 

The  prophets  gained  a  hearing  because  with  a  higher 
sexual  morality  they  linked  the  cause  of  the  poor  who 


THE  PROPHETS  OF  THE   EIGHTH   CENTURY      III 

were  oppressed  by  the  rich.  The  poor  man,  then  as 
now,  was  ready  to  listen  to  one  who  gave  him  practical 
help  In  the  struggle  for  existence,  even  If  the  teaching 
to  which  he  listened  condemned  some  cherished  Indul- 
gence. 

Isaiah,  however,  seems  to  have  realized  toward  the 
end  of  his  career  that  If  the  higher  life,  of  which  he 
and  hls^  fellow-prophets  had  gained  a  vision,  was  ever 
to  be  lived  by  his  fellow-countrymen.  It  must  be  em- 
bodied In  some  outward  form  which  could  not  be  con- 
fused with  the  worship  of  the   Canaanlte  Baals.     As 
religion  had  been  organized  from  the  conquest  to  that 
time,  this  was  not  the  case.     Yahweh  was  worshipped 
In  numerous  high  places,  just  as  the  Baals  were.     The 
high  places  of  Yahweh  had  been  high  places  of  the 
Baals  before  they  were  his.     He  was  worshipped   In 
many  of  them  by  ceremonies  which  had  crystallized  long 
before  his  name  was  known  In  the  land.     No  wonder 
that  In  the  popular  mind  there  was  little   distinction 
between  Yahweh  and  Baals,  or  between  the  morality 
demanded  by  him  and  by  them.     It  Is  not  surprising, 
therefore,  that  we  find  Hezeklah,  probably  at  Isaiah's 
suggestion,   making  an   effort  to  give  the  worship   of 
Yahweh  a  form  of  Its  own,  which  should  make  It  for 
ever  distinct.     To  this  end  he  endeavoured  to  purify  It  of 
obscene  emblems  and  to  centralize  Its  cult  In  Jerusalem. 
Pillars  and  asheras,  the  old  sexual  symbols  of  deity, 
were  placed  under  the  ban,  and  an  endeavour  was  made 
to  suppress  all  shrines  except  the  one  on  Zion   (see  II 


112  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

Kings  18:4,  22).  Such  a  reform  was  in  accord  with 
the  declaration  so  often  made  by  the  prophetic  group, 
that  the  sacrifices  of  the  popular  high  places  were 
really  transgressions  and  that  Yahweh  took  no  delight 
in  them.  It  was  also  in  accord  with  Isaiah's  conception 
that  Zion  was  necessary  to  the  perpetuity  of  the  religion 
of  Yahweh;  it  was  his  dwelling-place  —  the  city  which 
he  loved. 

No  doubt  in  this  effort  at  reform  many  time-honoured 
superstitious  customs  and  practices  were  swept  away. 
One  of  these  was  the  worship  of  a  brazen  serpent  (II 
Kings  18:4).  Serpent  worship  among  early  peoples 
was  widespread,  if  not  universal.  The  excavation  at 
Gezer  has  revealed  striking  evidence  of  its  practice  there 
during  the  Hebrew  period.^  This,  with  other  symbols 
which  obscured  the  ethical  and  spiritual  Yahweh,  was 
swept  away. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  reform  was  a  recognition  that 
the  new  and  higher  religious  conceptions  of  a  people 
must  link  themselves  with  the  religious  forms  of  their 
past.  Yahweh  had,  according  to  popular  views,  shared 
apparently  by  Isaiah  himself  (Is.  6:1  ff.),  long  had 
dwellings  in  their  midst,  or  at  least  places  where  he 
habitually  manifested  himself.  After  the  reform,  he 
still  had  one.  The  ritual  of  the  Jerusalem  temple  had 
had  a  continuous  existence  of  more  than  two  hundred 
years;  it  represented  elements  of  worship  inherited  from 

1  See  R.  A.  S.  Macalister,  Excavation  of  Gezer,  II,  399,  or  Barton, 
Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  p.  171  and  Fig.  219a. 


THE  PROPHETS  OF  THE  EIGHTH   CENTURY      II3 

Israel's  remote  Semitic  ancestry.  This  ritual  was  puri- 
fied and  retained.  Apparently  Isaiah  and  his  royal  co- 
labourer  hoped  that  by  this  reform  the  conditions  of 
progress  had  been  met,  and  that  the  ideals  which  had 
been  so  forcefully  set  forth  In  the  prophetic  preaching 
of  half  a  century  would  now  be  embodied  in  the  religion 
and  ethics  of  a  nation.  Was  Judah  ready  for  such  a 
reform  as  this?     We  shall  see  In  the  next  chapter. 


TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  The  Eighth  Century  in  Israel;  cf.  G.  A.  Smith,  The  Book 
of  the  Twelve  Prophets,  New  York,  1896,  ch.  iii. 

2.  Amos,  the  Man  and  his  Work;  cf.  G.  A.  Smith,  Ibid, 
ch.  vi. 

3.  Hosea,  the  Man  and  his  Work;  cf.  G.  A.  Smith,  Ibid, 
chapters  xil  and  xiii;  also  J.  M.  P.  Smith,  Amos,  Hosea,  and 
Micah,  pp.  77-82  (in  The  Bible  for  Home  and  School). 

4.  The  Composition  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah;  cf.  G.  B.  Gray, 
Isaiah,  pp.  xxix-lix  (in  the  International  Critical  Commentary). 

5.  The  Campaigns  of  Sennacherib;  cf.  K.  Fullerton  in  Bibli- 
otheca  Sacra,  LXHI,  pp.  577-634;  R.  W.  Rogers,  Cuneiform 
Parallels  to  the  Old  Testament,  pp.  332-340;  G.  A.  Barton, 
Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  Philadelphia,  191 6,  pp.  374  ff. 

6.  The  Dating  of  Messianic  Prophecy;  cf.  K.  Fullerton  in 
the  Harvard  Theological  Reviezt/,  VI,  pp.  478-520,  and  G.  A. 
Barton  in  the  Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  XXXIII,  pp.  68- 
74. 


CHAPTER  VII 

DEUTERONOMY  AND  JEREMIAH 

The  Reaction  under  Manasseh  —  Micah  6  —  The  Deuteronomic  Law  — 
Its  Introduction  as  the  Law  of  the  Land  —  The  Young  Jeremiah  — 
Five  New  Truths  —  Heathen  Deities  non-Existent  —  Yahweh  God 
of  all  Nations  —  Religion  Inward  —  Individual  Responsibility  — 
Ezekiel  and  Jeremiah. 

With  the  accession  of  Manasseh,  696  B.  c,  reaction- 
ary sentiment  became  for  a  time  supreme  in  Judah. 
There  were  many  causes  which  contributed  to  this  end. 
Hezeklah  had  denied  to  many  of  the  smaller  towns  of 
the  land  the  right  to  worship  In  their  ancestral  high 
places  and  had  made  an  effort  to  make  Jerusalem  the 
only  legitimate  place  of  sacrifice.  This  was  naturally 
as  much  resented  by  the  people  of  the  provincial  cities  as 
an  effort  to  close  all  churches  In  England  except  one 
central  cathedral  In  London  would  anger  the  popula- 
tion of  the  provinces.  It  was  a  movement  which  im- 
posed upon  them  great  inconveniences  and  which  struck 
heavy  blows  at  local  pride.  Each  city  was  naturally 
jealous  of  the  honour  of  Its  own  high  place.  In  addition 
to  this  the  reform  demanded  that  the  people  of  outly- 
ing towns  should  desist  from  hoary  religious  practices. 
It  required  them  to  believe  that  religion  was  a  matter 
of  the  heart  to  a  degree  hitherto  unknown,  and  that  sac- 

114 


DEUTERONOMY  AND  JEREMIAH  I15 

rifice  was  a  ceremony,  to  be  participated  in  only  on  the 
rare  occasions  when  they  went  to  Jerusalem.  Such  a 
religion  the  prophets  of  the  eighth  century  had  indeed 
proclaimed,  but  the  majority  of  the  population  had 
never  been  seriously  disposed  to  accept  It. 

Another  strong  reason  for  the  reaction  lay  in  the  su- 
perstitious veneration  of  the  people  for  their  high 
places.  From  time  immemorial  these  had  been  the 
abodes  of  Yahweh  —  the  places  where  he  was  wont  to 
manifest  himself.  Semitic  conceptions  of  holiness  led 
the  people  to  believe  that  a  sort  of  divine  energy  resided 
in  the  sacred  soil  of  these  places.  If  they  were  pro- 
faned or  this  energy  were  not  propitiated,  all  sorts  of 
disasters  might  be  expected  to  overtake  the  neighbouring 
towns. 

Again,  there  were  powerful  priesthoods  connected 
with  these  shrines.  These  were  thrown  out  of  business 
by  the  reform.  When  their  pockets  were  touched  and 
their  livelihood  endangered,  we  may  be  sure  that  they 
did  their  utmost  to  inflame  the  pride,  religious  rever- 
ence, and  superstition  of  the  people  to  the  highest  de- 
gree. 

Manasseh,  sympathizing  with  this  numerous  class  of 
his  subjects,  restored  the  high  places,  and  gave  the  reac- 
tionaries the  encouragement  of  his  royal  protection.  A 
tradition  preserved  in  different  forms  In  different  parts 
of  the  Talmud  declares  that  the  prophet  Isaiah  was  put 
to  death  by  him. 

Reactionary  movements  generally  carry  their  adher- 


Il6  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

ents,  not  simply  back  to  their  original  positions,  but 
beyond  them,  and  the  reaction  under  Manasseh  was  no 
exception  to  the  rule.  Worship  in  Judah  reverted  to 
barbarous  customs,  once  practised  by  all  Semites,  but 
which  the  Hebrews  had,  with  a  few  notable  exceptions, 
left  behind  them.  The  author  of  the  Books  of  Kings 
tells  us  that  the  worship  of  Moloch,  the  god  of  the 
Ammonites,  prevailed,  and  that  the  custom  of  sacrific- 
ing children  to  him  was  adopted.  If,  however,  we  take 
the  evidence  afforded  by  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel,  it  is  clear 
that  the  worship  referred  to  was  not  that  of  a  foreign 
deity,  but  was  worship  of  Yahweh  under  the  title  Melek, 
or  king,  and  that  the  children  were  sacrificed  to  him.^ 
In  the  reaction  Yahweh  had  come  in  the  popular  mind 
to  stand  for  some  of  the  crassest  and  most  barbarous  of 
primitive  religious  ceremonies.  Such  for  the  time 
seemed  to  be  the  result  of  the  preaching  of  the  great 
prophets  of  the  eighth  century. 

In  this  dark  time,  however,  the  prophetic  ideals  did 
not  die.  Here  and  there  faithful  souls  cherished  the 
vision  which  the  teachers  of  the  previous  generation 
had  enabled  them  to  see.  According  to  many  scholars  ^ 
it  was  at  this  period  that  a  prophetic  voice  gave  utter- 
ance to  the  ethical  definition  of  religion  which  now 
stands  in  Micah  6 :  6-8  : 

1  See  the  articles  "  Moloch "  in  the  Encyclopedia  B'lhlica,  Vol.  Ill, 
and  the  Jevj'ish  Encyclopedia,  Vol.  VIII ;  the  former  by  G.  F.  Moore, 
the  latter  by  the  present  writer. 

-  Wellhausen  and  J.  M.  P.  Smith,  however,  regard  the  passage  as 
post-exilic. 


DEUTERONOMY  AND  JEREMIAH  II7 

Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  Yahweh?  ... 

Shall  I  give  my  firstborn  for  my  transgression, 

And  the  fruit  of  my  body  for  the  sin  of  my  soul?  .   .  . 

Yea,  what  does  Yahweh  seek  from  thee, 

But  to  do  justice  and  love  kindness 

And  to  walk  humbly  w  ith  thy  God  ? 

Such  a  statement  gains  great  force,  If  uttered  against  a 
background  of  altars  reeking  with  human  blood. 

Scholars  are  agreed  that  It  was  at  this  period,  when 
much  active  teaching  was  Impossible,  that  a  disciple  of 
the  eighth-century  prophets,  or  a  group  of  disciples, 
produced  the  kernel  of  the  Deuteronomic  code,  which 
consisted,  excepting  some  later  additions,  of  Deut., 
chaps  5-26,  and  28:  1-46.  This  code  was  In  an  Im- 
portant sense  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  (Exod.,  chaps. 
20-23)  revised  and  Infused  with  the  teachings  of  the 
eighth-century  prophets. 

Among  the  many  modifications  which  were  Introduced 
the  most  drastic  were  those  which  demanded  a  reform 
identical  with  that  which  had  been  attempted  In  the 
reign  of  Hezeklah  and  had  so  signally  failed.  The  law 
which  had  permitted  a  multiplicity  of  shrines  (Exod. 
20:  24-26)  was  transformed  Into  a  law  which  permit- 
ted but  one  (Deut.,  chap.  12).  Pillars  and  Asheras, 
which  Hosea  had  regarded  as  the  natural  accompani- 
ments of  a  cult  (Hos.  3:4),  were  to  be  uprooted  (Deut. 
7:5),  and  the  social  Impurity  fostered  In  the  name  of 
religion  was  prohibited  (Deut.  23:17).  Many  cus- 
toms of  agricultural  and  social  life  had  moved  about 


Il8  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

the  local  sanctuaries  as  centres;  In  the  new  code  care 
was  taken  that  the  centralization  of  the  ritual  should 
not  work  too  great  Inconvenience  or  hardship.  The 
ears  of  slaves  who  elected  perpetual  slavery  had  been 
of  old  pierced  against  a  post  at  the  local  sanctuary 
(Exod.  21  :  6).  Lest  It  should  be  a  hardship  to  make 
a  journey  to  a  distant  city,  It  was  now  provided  that 
It  could  be  done  against  the  door-post  of  the  house 
(Deut.  15:17).  Formerly  the  local  altar  had  been 
the  sanctuary  at  which  one  who  accidentally  killed  an- 
other could  find  refuge  from  the  primitive  law  of  blood 
revenge  (Exod.  21 :  12-14).  For  such  a  man  to  have 
to  flee  to  the  altar  In  distant  Jerusalem  might,  in  a  land 
where  many  were  not  Marathon  racers,  rob  him  of  his 
one  chance  of  life.  Three  cities  of  refuge  were  ac- 
cordingly established  to  take  over  this  function  of  the 
local  shrines  (Deut.  19:3-7).  In  providing  for  the 
feasts  this  code  Is  more  definite  than  the  older  require- 
ments of  J  and  E.  They  had  simply  required  three 
feasts,  stating  that  one  of  them  should  be  held  in  the 
month  Abib.  Deuteronomy  gives  more  definite  dates 
for  the  celebration  of  the  other  two  festivals  (Deut. 
chap.  16). 

One  finds  a  more  humanitarian  spirit  In  the  code  of 
Deuteronomy  than  in  the  Book  of  the  Covenant.  The 
work  of  the  eighth-century  prophets  had  borne  fruit, 
and  greater  provision  was  made  for  the  needs  of  the 
poor  and  the  unfortunate.  For  example,  a  slave  who, 
at  the  appointed  year  chooses  his  freedom,  Is  not  as  in 


DEUTERONOMY  AND  JEREMIAH  II9 

the  older  code,  sent  away  empty  (Exod.  21 :  4-6),  but 
is  to  be  given  some  provision  with  which  to  make  a  new 
start  in  life  (Deut.  15:  13-15).  The  needs  of  slaves, 
and  even  of  animals,  are  thoughtfully  considered 
(Deut.  5:13-15;  25:4).  While  this  code  was,  we 
believe,  formulated  in  the  dark  reign  of  Manasseh,  the 
time  to  promulgate  it  had  not  come.  The  prophetic 
party  must  wait. 

The  long  reign  of  Manasseh  passed  at  last,  Amon 
ruled  but  two  years,  and  then  the  boy  Josiah  came  to 
the  throne.  As  he  grew  to  manhood  the  advocates  of 
purer  religion  discerned  in  him  a  kindred  spirit,  and 
when  in  his  eighteenth  year  a  royal  order  was  given 
for  the  repair  of  the  temple,  the  propitious  time  for  re- 
form was  thought  to  have  come.  The  new  law  was 
"  found  "  there  and  read  to  the  king.  The  king  was 
greatly  shocked.  If  this  was  really  the  law  of  Moses 
the  nation  was  indeed  in  a  sorry  state,  for  it  had  never 
been  observed.  The  days  of  paleography  and  of  higher 
criticism  had  not  then  dawned.  Desiring  to  know 
whether  the  new  law  was  really  the  Law  of  Moses,  Jo- 
siah resorted  to  a  religious  test;  he  submitted  it  to  an 
aged  prophetess  named  Huldah.  She  declared  it  to  be 
the  genuine  law;  it  met  her  views  of  what  the  original 
requirements  of  the  Mosaic  code  should  have  been,  for 
it  was  designed  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  religious  situa- 
tion of  the  hour  as  she  understood  them.  Accepting 
this  prophetic  witness  as  to  the  character  of  the  law, 
Josiah  set  himself  to  carry  it  into  effect,  and  a  great 


I20  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

religious   reform   was   undertaken    similar    to   that    at- 
tempted In  the  preceding  century  (II  Kings,  chaps.  22, 

23)- 

It  has  been  frequently  said  by  those  unwiUing  to  ac- 
cept the  results  of  modern  critical  study,  that  if  this  is 
the  true  account  of  the  origin  and  introduction  of  Deu- 
teronomy the  prophetic  party  was  guilty  of  fraud,  and, 
if  guilty  of  fraud,  the  book  would  be  unworthy  to  form 
a  part  of  divine  revelation.  This  is  not,  however,  a 
valid  objection.  Ethics  as  well  as  revelation  has  been 
progressive,  and  it  Is  unfair  to  judge  ancient  men  by 
standards  which  have  become  ruling  ideals  only  since 
they  died.  The  conduct  of  those  who  secured  the  in- 
troduction of  Deuteronomy  was  quite  in  accord  with 
the  best  conscience  of  that  age.  No  man  of  that  time 
stood  nearer  to  the  ideal  standard  than  Jeremiah;  no 
man  in  the  whole  pre-Christian  period  carried  revela- 
tion forward  by  greater  strides  than  he.  Nevertheless 
Jeremiah,  at  the  instigation  of  King  Zedeklah,  once 
took  a  course  not  In  accord  with  the  highest  ethics  ( Jer. 
38:14-27). 

Five  years  before  the  finding  of  the  law  Jeremiah, 
then  a  very  young  man,  had  begun  to  prophesy.  Dur- 
ing the  early  years  of  his  prophetic  activity  a  great  ter- 
ror hung  over  the  land.  Assyria  was  rapidly  declin- 
ing in  power,  but  hordes  of  barbarians  were  streaming 
along  the  Philistine  lowlands  and  threatening  to  over- 
run the  land;  Herodotus  calls  them  Scythians.  Pour- 
ing into  Asia  from  what  Is  now  southern  Russia,  they 


DEUTERONOMY  AND  JEREMIAH  121 

had  half  a  century  before  this  overrun  large  tracts  to 
the  south  of  the  Black  Sea;  now  they  moved  southward 
to  the  borders  of  Egypt  (Herodotus  i,  105).  The 
earlier  prophecies  of  Jeremiah  are  filled  with  gloomy 
forebodings  of  a  disaster  which  is  coming  from  the 
north,  and  it  is  probable  that  these  Scythians  were  in 
his  thoughts  to  be  the  agents  of  this  catastrophe.  The 
little  book  of  Zephaniah,  which  is  from  beginning  to 
end  a  gloomy  prediction  of  woe,  was  probably  written 
under  the  shadow  of  the  coming  of  this  horde.  Per- 
haps it  was  fear  that  Yahweh  was  thus  about  to  bring 
chastisement  upon  the  land  for  not  having  observed 
his  law  that  led  Josiah  so  readily  to  inaugurate  his  re- 
form when  the  law  book  was  discovered. 

The  accomplishment  of  the  reform  undertaken  by 
Josiah  was  no  less  difficult  than  it  had  been  eighty 
years  before  when  undertaken  by  Hezekiah.  The  same 
forces  of  personal  convenience,  religious  reverence,  su- 
perstition, and  self-interest  that  had  then  defeated  it 
were  arrayed  against  it  now,  and  years  of  strenuous 
labour  on  the  part  of  the  prophetic  party  were  necessary 
to  secure  its  observance.  Into  this  work  the  young 
Jeremiah  threw  himself  with  ardour,  and  the  notes  of  the 
sermons  of  this  period  which  the  book  of  his  prophecies 
contains  have  for  their  theme  the  various  aspects  of  this 
struggle. 

Just  after  the  death  of  Assurbanipal  (626  B.C.) 
Babylon  had,  under  a  Chaldean  dynasty,  gained  her  in- 
dependence.    Assyria  during  the  next  twenty  years  rap- 


122  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

idly  declined  to  her  fall.  The  twenty-sixth  dynasty,  es- 
tablished now  on  the  throne  of  Egypt,  was  ambitious  to 
rebuild  again  Egypt's  empire  in  Asia.  Thus  it  came 
about  that  in  the  year  608  Necho  marched  into  Asia 
with  an  invading  army.  Josiah,  apparently  thinking 
that  the  time  was  propitious  to  restore  the  empire  of  his 
great  ancestor,  David,  met  Necho  at  Megiddo  in  battle, 
but  was  defeated  and  killed.  This  is  not  the  place  to 
recount  the  political  events  which  followed.  How 
Necho  for  four  years  made  Judah  a  vassal  of  Egypt, 
how  he  was  then  defeated  by  Nebuchadnezzar  at  Car- 
chemish,  how  Judah  passed  under  Babylonian  control, 
how  certain  prophets  and  others  continually  sought  by 
the  aid  of  Egypt  to  sever  the  bonds  which  bound  Judah 
to  Babylon,  how  Jeremiah  continually  opposed  these, 
declaring  that  it  was  Yahweh's  will  that  his  land  should 
remain  under  Babylonian  protection,  how  Jehoiakim 
and  Zedekiah  disregarded  Jeremiah's  teaching  and 
brought  on  the  captivities  of  597  and  586,  culminating 
in  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  how  Jeremiah  he- 
roically suffered  during  all  this  time,  are  matters  of 
common  knowledge. 

Jeremiah  during  his  ministry  advanced  the  religious 
conception  of  his  people  in  several  respects.  He  re- 
vived the  main  features  of  the  teaching  of  Hosea, 
dwelling  as  Hosea  had  done  on  the  love  of  Yahweh 
and  interpreting  the  covenant  between  Yahweh  and 
Israel  as  a  covenant  of  marriage.  In  tenderness  and 
depth  of  feeling  he  surpasses  all  his  predecessors  except 


DEUTERONOMY  AND  JEREMIAH  1 23 

Hosea.  As  the  tragic  events  through  which  he  hved 
drove  Jeremiah  to  seek  anew  the  foundation  of  life,  he 
gained  new  light  on  five  important  points,  advancing 
in  as  many  particulars  the  progress  of  revelation. 

Jeremiah  was  the  first  Hebrew  known  to  us  who 
reached  a  theoretical  monotheism.  Others,  as  we  have 
seen,  had  been  practical  monotheists,  but  it  remained 
for  Jeremiah  to  declare  that  the  gods  of  the  heathen 
were  vanities  —  mere  figments  of  the  imagination  (10: 
15;  14:22). 

The  second  point  in  which  Jeremiah  advanced  the 
thought  of  his  people  was  the  declaration  that  Yahweh 
was  willing  to  become  the  God  of  the  nations  as  well 
as  the  God  of  the  Jews  —  that  he  would  welcome  the 
repentant  heathen  to  his  worship  (16:  17-21).  Since 
the  recognition  of  this  fact  was  necessary  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  religion  that  should  be  in  any  sense  uni- 
versal, this  was  a  long  step  forward. 

The  third  important  point  in  Jeremiah's  teaching  is 
his  conception  of  the  inwardness  of  religion.  To  the 
prophets  of  the  eighth  century,  religion  was  ethical;  to 
Jeremiah  it  was  an  experience  of  the  heart.  To  him 
the  real  covenant  was  not  that  at  Horeb  written  upon 
tables  of  stone,  but  a  covenant  written  upon  the  heart 
within ;  not  a  law  imposed  upon  the  heart  from  without, 
but  such  an  experience  of  Yahweh  in  the  inner  man  that 
one  does  right  from  the  impulses  which  spring  from 
the  soul  (31:31-34).  Such  was  Jeremiah's  concep- 
tion of  the  religion  of  the  future.     The  seer  who  could 


124  ^^^  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

take  that  step  in  religious  thought  was  surely  one  of 
the  greatest  of  the  prophets. 

Because  Jeremiah  regarded  religion  as  a  change  of 
heart  rather  than  an  outward  institution  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  ritual  became  to  him  a  secondary  consider- 
ation. Isaiah  had  believed  that  the  existence  of  the 
temple  was  vital  to  the  religion  of  Yahweh,  and  the 
decimation  of  Sennacherib's  army  had  vindicated  this 
faith.  So  far  as  we  can  see,  the  destruction  of  the 
temple  in  Isaiah's  time  would  have  been  disastrous  to 
the  Hebrew  religion.  Such  a  faith  in  the  security  of 
the  temple  might,  however,  lead  to  an  over-confidence 
which  would  produce  unethical  results.  Moreover  the 
Mosaic  covenant  was  now  interpreted  in  a  code  which 
required  the  greater  part  of  the  people  to  dispense  with 
sacrifice  during  the  greater  part  of  the  year.  Jere- 
miah, conceiving  religion  as  in  its  essence  inward,  was 
able,  therefore,  to  declare  that  if  the  people  sinned  the 
temple  would  be  destroyed,  and  the  event  justified  his 
belief.  Dearly  as  he  loved  the  temple  he  could  see  it 
perish  without  losing  his  faith  in  Yahweh's  presence  and 
power. 

Jeremiah's  other  great  contribution  to  religious 
thought  was  his  assertion  of  individual  responsibility. 
Among  the  Hebrews,  as  among  other  early  Semites,  the 
family  or  clan  had  been  regarded  as  the  moral  unit. 
Not  only  had  Achan,  for  example,  been  put  to  death 
for  his  sin,  but  his  whole  house  and  even  his  cattle  (Josh. 
7:  22-25).     No  very  high  type  of  ethical  or  religious 


DEUTERONOMY  AND  JEREMIAH  1 25 

life  was  possible  until  the  individual  was  regarded  as 
the  moral  unit,  and  it  is  to  the  credit  of  Jeremiah  that 
he  led  in  asserting  this  fundamental  truth  (31 :  29,  30). 

In  the  year  592  Ezekiel,  a  young  priest,  who  had  been 
carried  captive  to  Babylonia  five  years  previously,  be- 
gan to  prophesy,  and  it  is  one  of  the  distinguishing  fea- 
tures of  his  work  that  he  too  championed  the  new  doc- 
trine of  individualism  (Ezek.  chap.  18).  Indeed  he 
gives  it  a  reasoned  form  and  a  detailed  explanation  such 
as  the  writings  of  Jeremiah,  its  enunciator,  have  not 
preserved. 

During  the  last  six  years  before  the  fall  of  Jeru- 
salem, Ezekiel  in  Babylonia  was  ably  seconding  the 
work  of  Jeremiah.  The  first  twenty-four  chapters  of 
his  book  come  from  this  period.  It  would  seem  that 
frequent  messengers  went  back  and  forth  between  Jeru- 
salem and  Babylonia  so  that  Ezekiel  knew  what  was  oc- 
curring in  Jerusalem,  and  his  prophecies  were  known 
there.  We  learn  from  his  book  that  the  Deuteronomic 
reform  and  the  lofty  thoughts  of  Jeremiah  had  not 
touched  the  hearts  of  all.  Women  still  worshipped 
Tammuz  and  men  worshipped  the  sun  and  did  homage 
to  all  sorts  of  animal  totems,  such  as  In  primitive  days 
their  Semitic  ancestors  had  thought  to  be  an  embodi- 
ment of  their  gods. 

No  nation  moves  forward  In  even  ranks  and  Judah 
was  no  exception  to  the  rule.  Prophetic  reformers 
might  frame  laws  for  the  elevation  of  religion,  and 
great  souls  might  carry  its  thoughts  forward  to  glorious 


126  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

heights,  but  among  the  rank  and  file  custom  and  super- 
stition must  be  slowly  outgrown.  The  heights  have  no 
attraction  for  many  and  to  break  with  the  past  seems 
dangerous,  so  they  inertly  perpetuate  outgrown  customs, 
which  have  become  meaningless.  Yet  the  future  lay 
with  the  type  of  religion  which  the  great  soul  of  Jere- 
miah had  discerned,  which  he  had  so  powerfully  taught, 
and  for  which  through  so  many  years  he  had  suffered. 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  The  Reaction  under  Manasseh;  cf.  ''  Molech  "  in  the  En- 
cyclopaedia Biblica  and  '*  Moloch  "  in  the  Jewish  E?icyclopedia. 

2.  The  problem  of  Deuteronomy;  cf.  "  Deuteronomy  "  in  the 
Encyclopaedia  Biblica. 

3.  A  Comparison  of  Deuteronomy  with  the  Book  of  the 
Covenant:  compare  Ex.  20:  24-23:  19  with  Deut.  12-26  section 
by  section  using  a  reference  Bible  and  a  concordance  as  an  aid 
in  finding  the  parallel  portions. 

4.  The  Life  and  Work  of  Jeremiah;  cf.  H.  P.  Smith,  The 
Religion  of  Israel,  Chapter  9  and  Cornill,  The  Prophets  of  Israel, 
Chicago,  1897. 

5.  The  Structure  of  the  Book  of  Jeremiah;  cf.  S.  R.  Driver, 
Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  Old  Testarnent,  9th  ed. 
ch.  iv,  or  Cornill,  Introduction  to  the  Canonical  Books  of  the 
Old  Testament,  pp.  295-311. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  EXILE  AND  THE  REORGANIZED  JEWISH  STATE 

Ezekiel  both  Priest  and  Prophet  —  Ezekiel  proposed  Levites  as  Dis- 
tinct Class  —  Cyrus  —  The  Second  Isaiah  —  Israel's  Mission  to 
teach  Yahweh  to  World  —  Zerubbabel  —  Rebuilding  of  the  Tem- 
ple—The Third  Isaiah  — The  Code  of  Holiness  — The  Priestly 
Document  —  Nehemiah  —  Introduction   of   the   Priestly   Law. 

Ezekiel,  who,  as  a  prophet  In  Babylonia,  had  so 
efficiently  aided  the  work  of  Jeremiah  during  the  six 
years  Immediately  preceding  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  con- 
tinued his  prophetic  work  among  the  captives  for  more 
than  fifteen  years  after  the  destruction  of  his  native 
city.  Before  the  close  of  his  life  he  drew  up  a  plan  for 
the  reorganization  of  the  political  and  religious  polity  of 
his  people,  when  their  Institutions  should  be  again  es- 
tablished In  their  own  land.  This  plan,  thrown  Into 
the  form  of  visions,  now  occupies  chaps.  40-48  of  the 
book  of  Ezekiel. 

In  Ezekiel  two  streams  of  Influence,  once  antagonis- 
tic to  each  other,  met  and  were  reconciled.  He  was  by 
birth  a  priest  and  by  calling  a  prophet.  The  traditions 
of  the  priesthood  were  dear  to  him  on  account  of  early 
association  and  personal  participation;  the  moral  and 
spiritual  aspirations  of  the  prophets  fired  his  soul  and 
commanded  the  devotion  of  his  powers.  He  therefore 
undertook  to  shape  the  ritual  of  the  priesthood  so  that 

127 


128  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

it  should  become  an  Instrument  for  the  preservation 
and  expression  of  the  prophetic  ideals.  In  this  under- 
taking he  was  but  carrying  on  the  work  of  the  Deuter- 
onomist,  for,  as  previously  pointed  out,  the  Deuter- 
onomic  code  was  a  fusion  of  ritual  with  prophetic  ideals. 

In  this  brief  sketch  we  can  notice  but  one  aspect  of 
Ezekiel's  work,  but  it  is  the  part  of  it  which  most  pro- 
foundly affected  the  institutions  of  Judaism.  In  Deu- 
teronomy priests  and  Levites  were  synonymous  terms; 
every  Levite  was  a  potential  priest  (see  e.g.,  Deut.  i8: 
1-5).  This  Ezekiel  changed.  He  tells  us  (44:  8-14) 
that  in  former  times  the  menial  work  of  the  sanctuary, 
such  as  keeping  the  gates  and  slaying  the  sacrifices,  had 
been  performed  by  foreigners.  In  the  future  he  de- 
clares that  this  shall  not  be  done,  but  those  Levites  who 
formerly  officiated  as  priests  in  the  high  places  shall 
be  deposed  from  their  priesthood  and  shall  in  future  be 
degraded  to  this  menial  service.  Thus  Ezekiel  created 
a  new  class  of  temple  servants  by  creating  this  distinc- 
tion between  priests  and  Levites.  It  is  a  distinction  un- 
known to  the  earlier  religion,  but  everywhere  assumed 
in  the  priestly  laws.  All  these  laws  are,  accordingly, 
later  than  Ezekiel. 

After  the  death  of  Ezekiel  the  Babylonian  empire 
gradually  waned.  About  550  B.C.  Cyrus  the  Great 
overthrew  the  empire  of  the  Medes  and  laid  the  foun- 
dations of  the  Persian  empire.  The  succeeding  years 
were  occupied  by  his  brilliant  conquests,  of  which  the 
overthrow  of  Croesus,  king  of  Lydia,  In  546  B.C.  was 


THE  REORGANIZED  JEWISH   STATE  1 29 

but  one.  These  brilliant  achievements  of  the  new  con- 
queror were  known  to  the  Hebrew  captives  in  Babylon, 
among  whom  a  new  prophet  now  arose.  The  name  of 
this  prophet  has  been  lost.  Scholars  call  him  the  "  sec- 
ond Isaiah,"  because  In  the  course  of  the  centuries  his 
book  was  bound  up  with  the  work  of  Isaiah,  the  son  of 
Amoz,  and  now  forms  chaps.  40-55  of  our  Book  of 
Isaiah. 

This  nameless  prophet,  one  of  the  world's  greatest, 
was  an  exponent  of  the  monotheistic  faith  of  his  pro- 
phetic predecessors.  He  foresaw  that  Cyrus,  who  was 
everywhere  so  Irresistible,  would  conquer  Babylon,  and 
with  that  magnificent  faith  which  sees  the  manifesta- 
tions of  a  living  God  In  the  events  of  contemporary 
history  he  declared  that  Cyrus  was  Yahweh's  creature, 
and  that  it  was  for  Yahweh  and  for  Yahweh's  people, 
Israel,  that  Cyrus  was  winning  his  victories.  When 
Babylon  fell  Into  his  hands,  and  perhaps  even  before, 
Cyrus  Issued  an  edict  permitting  all  captive  peoples  to 
return  to  their  lands  and  rebuild  their  institutions.  This 
was  a  reversal  of  a  policy  pursued  by  Assyrians  and 
Babylonians  for  two  hundred  years.  These  powers 
had  torn  nations  to  shreds  to  prevent  rebellion;  Cyrus 
proposed  to  bind  the  people  to  him  by  kindness  and 
gratitude.  Foreseeing  that  through  the  victory  of  Cy- 
rus this  opportunity  for  Israel  to  return  to  her  land 
would  come,  our  great  prophet  devoted  his  sermons  de- 
livered before  the  fall  of  Babylon  In  the  year  538  (i.  e.^ 
Isa.,  chaps.  40-48)   to  an  endeavour  to  create  In  his 


130  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

fellow-captives  In  Babylonia  an  enthusiasm  to  return 
and  rebuild  their  state,  when  the  opportunity  should 
come.  As  the  captives,  many  of  whom  were  engaged 
in  prosperous  business  In  Babylonia,  did  not  avail  them- 
selves of  this  privilege  when  Cyrus  triumphed  In  538 
B.  c,  a  second  series  of  addresses  (Isa.,  chaps.  49-55)' 
still  further  setting  before  them  their  opportunities  and 
obligations,  followed. 

The  great  contribution  of  this  prophet  to  Israel's 
religious  thought  consists  of  the  new  Interpretation 
which  he  gave  to  Yahweh's  choice  of  Israel,  to  Israel's 
mission,  and  to  Israel's  sufferings.  His  Interpretation 
was  in  brief  this:  Yahweh  had  chosen  Israel  to  be  his 
interpreter  to  the  world.  Israel's  election  was  accord- 
ingly an  election  to  service,  not  an  election  for  his  own 
aggrandizement  and  glorification.  His  mission  was  to 
be  Yahweh's  missionary  to  the  world,  and  his  sufferings 
were  a  part  of  the  appointed  means  by  which  he  should 
make  Yahweh  known  to  the  nations.  He  graphically 
represented  Israel  as  Yahweh's  servant;  sometimes  he 
was  an  unfaithful  servant,  dull  of  understanding  and 
wayward  of  heart  (Isa.,  43:  22-24),  but  at  times,  the 
chosen  servant  (41  :  8-9),  upheld  by  Yahweh  to  bring 
justice  to  the  gentiles  (42:  2-4;  49:  1-4),  who  heroic- 
ally endured  the  Insults  showered  upon  him  (50:  4-9). 
Finally,  kings  stand  In  astonishment  at  the  servant's 
awful  fate,  and  wonder  why  it  should  be  (52  :  15)  when 
they  become  conscious  that  his  sufferings  were  for  their 


THE  REORGANIZED  JEWISH   STATE  131 

salvation  (53:4-6).^  This  Interpretation  of  Israel's 
career  reveals  the  prophet's  profound  Insight  Into  the 
nature  of  God,  man,  and  life;  the  agony  of  the  best  be- 
comes Intelligible  when  Its  vicarious  value  is  understood. 
This  view  gave  the  mission  of  Israel  a  moral  signifi- 
cance and  a  spiritual  purpose  which  transfigured  It. 

Indeed  the  prophet  had  conceived  an  Ideal  for  the 
nation  that  a  nation  could  never  fulfil.  It  remained 
for  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  Ideal  Israelite,  to  take  up  In 
his  person  and  experience  the  work  which  the  prophet 
had  conceived  as  possible  for  the  nation,  and  to  make 
the  Idea  real. 

The  privileges  granted  by  Cyrus  had  no  immediate 
effect  upon  the  fortunes  of  Jerusalem.  A  governor  of 
the  seed  of  David,  Zerubbabel,  whose  name  betrays  his 
Babylonian  birth,  became  ruler  of  Jerusalem,  but  the 
opportunities  of  gain  which  Babylonia  offered  proved 
to  the  majority  of  Jews  far  more  attractive  than  the 
barren  soil  of  Judaea.  It  thus  came  about  that  In  the 
year  520  b.C.^  nearly  a  score  of  years  later,  the  condi- 
tion of  Jerusalem  had  not  changed.  Its  population 
was  still  the  peasantry,  who  had  never  been  carried  to 
Babylonia;  Its  temple  and  walls  were  still  in  ruins. ^ 

1  Many  interpretations  of  the  "  servant  passages "  in  Isaiah  are  en- 
tertained by  different  scholars.  These  have  given  rise  to  an  extensive 
literature.  The  writer  has  given  his  own  view  above,  and  lack  of 
space  makes  the  discussion  of  other  views  impossible. 

2  This  is  the  view  presented  in  the  contemporary  prophets,  Haggai 
and  Zechariah.  Scholars  rightly  give  these  credence  rather  than  the 
late   account   in   Ezra. 


132  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

Just  at  this  time  a  drought  occurred.  In  Palestine 
an  insufficient  rainfall  always  causes  a  famine.  As  in 
the  days  of  David  (II  Sam.  21  :  1-14))  men  sought  to 
understand  why  Yahweh  had  withheld  his  rain.  Hag- 
gai,  who  now  began  to  prophesy,  declared  that  Yahweh 
was  by  this  famine  inflicting  punishment  upon  his  peo- 
ple for  not  rebuilding  the  temple.  Another  new 
prophet,  Zechariah,  appeared  and  enforced  the  same 
teaching.  Their  words  were  taken  to  heart;  the  people 
began  to  build.  When  the  rainy  season  came  around, 
copious  showers  fell,  and  all  were  satisfied  that  the 
prophets  had  rightly  divined  the  cause  of  Yahweh's  an- 
ger. The  building  went  steadily  forward,  and  two 
years  later  the  temple  was  completed.  Its  splendour 
was  far  inferior  to  that  of  the  former  building,  but  it 
was  nevertheless  a  "  house  "  for  Yahweh. 

During  this  work  the  colony  of  Jews  in  Babylonia, 
which  was  for  many  centuries  known  as  the  "  Captiv- 
ity," began  to  exert  its  great  influence  in  Palestinian 
affairs.  They  sent  some  gold  and  silver  from  which 
crowns  were  to  be  made  (Zech.  6:  9  ff.).  As  the  text 
now  reads,  these  crowns  were  to  be  set  on  the  head  of 
Joshua,  the  high  priest,  but  many  scholars  believe  that 
originally  the  text  contained  here  the  name  of  Zerub- 
babel.  There  were  widespread  revolts  throughout  the 
Persian  empire  during  the  first  six  years  of  the  reign 
of  Darius  I.  Babylon  revolted  twice,  as  did  Susiana. 
Media  and  many  other  provinces  attempted  to  gain 
their  independence.     Even   his   native   Persia   revolted 


THE  REORGANIZED  JEWISH   STATE  1 33 

once.  In  the  disturbed  state  of  the  empire,  It  Is  prob- 
able that  the  Jews  thought  their  time  had  come,  and, 
hoping  that  Zerubbabel  might  prove  a  Messiah,  strove 
In  vain  to  regain  independence. 

After  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple,  historical  sources 
fail  us  for  more  than  seventy  years.  Probably  It  was 
during  this  period  that  that  prophet  arose  whose  work 
now  constitutes  Isa.,  chaps.  56-66.  He  endeavoured 
to  keep  alive  In  Palestine  the  ideals  for  which  the  sec- 
ond Isaiah  had  so  eloquently  pleaded  In  Babylonia.  He 
graphically  portrayed  the  glory  which  awaited  ZIon 
(e.g.,  chap.  60),  and  endeavoured  to  keep  before  the 
minds  of  his  countrymen  their  great  mission  as  the  serv- 
ant of  Yahweh  as  this  mission  had  been  explained  by 
the  second  Isaiah  (see  61:1-4;  62:1).  His  words 
show  that  in  at  least  one  soul  the  highest  Ideals  were 
still  aflame,  although  the  realization  of  them  seemed 
farther  away  than  ever. 

Incidentally  we  learn  from  this  prophet  that  some  of 
the  people  had  not  yet  been  touched  by  the  prophetic 
conception  of  religion.  Here  and  there  men  were  still 
found  who  sought  relief  from  the  hard  fortunes  of  life 
In  sacrificing  unclean  animals  to  heathen  gods  (cf. 
65:  11;  66:3-4). 

Meantime  the  influences  set  In  motion  by  Ezekiel 
were  at  work  In  other  minds.  The  so-called  "  Holiness 
Code,"  compiled  at  some  time  before  500  B.  c,  and  per- 

1  Many  scholars  hold  that  this  code  was  earlier  than  Ezekiel  and  that 
Ezekiel  was  influenced  by  it.     That  there  is  a  direct  literary  connection 


134  ^^^  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

haps  as  early  as  the  second  Isaiah,  by  a  writer  whose 
name  Is  now  lost  to  us,  though  here  and  there  interpo- 
lated by  later  material,  now  forms  the  main  part 
of  Lev.,  chaps.  17-26.  Like  Ezekiel,  this  writer  was 
devoted  at  once  to  the  prophetic  and  priestly  ideals. 
Nowhere  else  in  the  Old  Testament  is  the  thought  that 
Yahweh  is  holy,  and  that,  therefore,  his  people  must  be 
holy,  insisted  upon  with  so  much  emphasis.  He  com- 
piled a  code  of  laws,  many  of  which  represented  prac- 
tices much  older  than  his  time,  the  main  purpose  of 
which  was  to  preserve  the  holiness  of  Israel.  Holiness, 
as  here  conceived,  was,  as  among  the  early  Semites, 
partly  a  physical  condition,  but  nevertheless  there 
breathes  through  his  work  a  lofty  and  passionate  devo- 
tion to  prophetic  ideals,  which  links  his  work  to  Deut- 
eronomy and  to  that  of  Ezekiel.  A  little  later,  but  be- 
fore 450  B.  c,  another  writer  compiled  the  main  body 
of  priestly  laws  in  the  Pentateuch.  To  give  his  laws  a 
literary  setting  he  composed  an  account  of  the  creation 
of  the  world,  of  the  fortunes  of  the  patriarchs,  and  of 
the  exodus,  of  the  covenant  at  Sinai,  and  of  the  conquest 
of  Palestine.  This  writer  carried  the  regulation  of  the 
ritual  of  worship  into  much  greater  detail  than  previous 
codifiers  had  done,  though  he,  also,  in  many  instances, 

between  the  two,  is  acknowledged  by  all.  To  the  mind  of  the  present 
writer  the  decisive  evidence  for  the  date  given  above  is  the  full  experi- 
ence of  exile  and  the  promise  of  return  expressed  in  Lev.  26:27-45. 
Those  who  claim  an  earlier  date  for  the  writer  of  the  code  regard 
26:30,  34  f.,  39-45  as  later  interpolations,  but  there  seems  no  sufficient 
warrant  for  this. 


THE  REORGANIZED  JEWISH   STATE  1 35 

did  no  more  than  give  literary  expression  to  many  older 
practices.  By  means  of  the  literary  setting  that  he  gave 
the  whole  it  was  made  to  appear  that  many  of  the  insti- 
tutions which  the  priesthood  considered  vital  were 
primeval.  The  Sabbath  was  traced  back  to  creation 
(Gen.  2:  1-3),  circumcision,  to  Abraham  (Gen.,  chap. 
17),  and  the  distinction  between  priests  and  Levites,  to 
Moses  ( Num.  3  :  5-2 1  ff . ) . 

The  religious  atmosphere  of  this  priestly  document 
is  very  different  from  that  of  the  prophetic  writings. 
Its  author  was,  it  is  true,  a  devout  monotheist,  but  he 
apparently  had  no  conception  that  God  still  communi- 
cated with  men.  In  his  thought  God  was  a  very  exalted 
Being,  all  created  things  came  into  existence  in  simple 
obedience  to  God's  word  —  but  God  was  very  remote. 
God  had  once  spoken  to  Moses  —  how,  we  are  not  told 
—  and  had  given  to  Moses  the  laws.  Now  the  nation 
could  know  God  only  by  obeying  the  laws  thus  divinely 
given.  In  this  code  monotheism  had  triumphed,  but  it 
had  lost  its  warmth.  The  prophetic  sense  of  familiar 
communication  with  Yahweh,  with  all  the  inspiring  ex- 
periences which  that  involved,  had  given  place  to  unim- 
passioned  obedience  to  the  commands  of  a  far-off  God, 
who  once  held  communion  with  an  especially  favoured 
man. 

In  the  year  444  B.  c,  Nehemiah,  a  wealthy  young  He- 
brew who  was  acting  as  a  cupbearer  to  Artaxerxes  I  of 
Persia,  obtained  appointment  to  the  governorship  of 
Jerusalem,  with  permission  to  rebuild  the  walls.     The 


136  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

story  of  the  energetic  way  in  which  he  accomplished 
this,  contained  in  Neh.,  chaps.  1-7,  is  no  doubt  familiar 
to  every  reader.  As  the  text  of  Neh.  8-10  now  stands, 
it  appears  that  at  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles  in  October 
of  that  year  a  great  concourse  of  people  gathered  be- 
fore the  water  gate  in  Jerusalem,  and  Ezra,  who  is  said 
to  have  brought  the  book  of  the  law  from  Babylon, 
read  the  law  to  the  assembled  multitudes,  and  before 
the  month  was  over  they  had  bound  themselves  to  keep 
it.  Several  scholars  have  in  recent  years  expressed 
doubts  of  the  historical  character  of  this  representation, 
and  others,  who  find  in  it  an  historical  kernel  are  in- 
clined to  think  that  it  is  here  placed  at  too  early  a  time. 
This  last  view  the  writer  shares.  There  is  much  reason 
to  believe  that  the  mission  of  Ezra  was  later  than  that 
of  Nehemiah  —  perhaps  so  late  that  Nehemiah  had 
passed  away  before  Ezra  came  from  Babylonia.^  On 
the  other  hand,  there  is  evidence  that  the  priestly  law 
had  been  Introduced  Into  Jerusalem  before  419  B.  c, 
for  In  that  year  a  letter  was  sent  to  the  colony  of  Jews 
at  Elephantine  In  Egypt,  directing  them  to  keep  the 
Passover  In  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the 
priestly  law.     It  Is,  in  the  writer's  judgment,  probable 

1  See  Batten,  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  In  the  International  Critical  Com- 
mentary, p.  28  f.,  though  the  view  set  forth  by  Professor  Batten  does 
not  altogether  commend  itself. 

2  See  Sachau,  Aramdische  Papyrus  und  Ostraka  aus  einer  jiidischen 
Militdr-Kolonie  zu  Elephantine,  Leipzig,  1911,  No.  6;  also  Arnold  in 
Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  XXXI,  p.  i  f.,  and  the  writer  in  Journal 
of  Biblical  Literature,  XXXII,  p.  256  f.,  and  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology 
and  the  Bible,  Philadelphia,  191 6,  Part  II,  ch.  xix,  §  2. 


THE  REORGANIZED  JEWISH   STATE  1 37 

that  this  law  was  Introduced  in  432  b.  c,  when  Nehe- 
miah  came  back  as  governor  the  second  time.  When- 
ever it  was  introduced,  it  would  be  natural  that  such  an 
assembly  as  that  described  here  should  be  called  to- 
gether to  hear  the  law.  Even  if  the  compiler  of  Nehe- 
miah  has  confused  its  details  and  dated  it  incorrectly, 
it  probably  represents  a  kernel  of  historical  fact. 

The  law  to  which  the  people  thus  committed  them- 
selves certainly  included  the  priestly  code  (cf.  Neh. 
8:  14  with  Lev.  23:33  f.).  Probably  that  code  had 
already  been  combined  with  the  earlier  documents  sub- 
stantially as  we  now  find  them  in  our  Pentateuch,  for 
otherwise  it  could  not  have  displaced  the  older  legisla- 
tion. This  combination  was  made  so  skilfully  that  the 
priestly  laws  seemed  naturally  to  be  the  heart  of  the 
whole  and  the  basis  of  the  covenant  with  Yahweh  at 
Horeb.  To  the  superficial  reader  of  the  Pentateuch 
this  still  seems  to  be  the  case. 

The  introduction  of  the  priestly  legislation  brought 
into  Jewish  life  a  puritanic  spirit.  Nehemiah  and 
Ezra,  who  directed  the  movement,  were  ardent  expo- 
nents of  this  spirit.  In  the  language  of  the  priestly 
laws,  Israel  was  a  "  holy  congregation."  Nehemiah 
and  Ezra  determined  that  the  nation  should  merit  the 
name.  In  their  view  this  could  not  be  if  Hebrews  were 
not  of  pure  blood,  or  if  they  associated  closely  with  for- 
eigners. They  accordingly  compelled  those  who  had 
married  foreign  wives  to  put  them  away. 

This  movement  to  purify  the  "  congregation  "  of  all 


138  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

foreign  elements  led  to  a  schism.  At  Samaria  there  had 
existed  for  almost  three  hundred  years  a  group  of  peo- 
ple who  were  anxious  to  be  regarded  as  rightful  wor- 
shippers of  Yahweh.  A  part  of  their  ancestry  had  been 
brought  from  eastern  countries  by  Sargon  of  Assyria 
(II  Kings  17:  24-34),  but  these  had  at  an  early  date 
embraced  the  worship  of  the  God  of  Israel.  These  for- 
eigners had  Intermarried  with  the  Israelite  peasantry 
whom  Sargon  left  behind.  In  reality  their  descendants 
were  of  as  pure  a  Hebrew  stock  as  many  a  Judaean, 
although,  unfortunately,  the  coming  of  their  foreign  an- 
cestors was  such  a  notorious  historical  fact  that  the 
Judaeans  refused  to  recognize  their  Hebrew  descent. 
From  the  beginning  of  Nehemlah's  administration  there 
was  friction  with  these  Samaritans.  How  tenaciously 
the  Samaritans  clung  to  the  monotheistic  worship  of 
Yahweh  and  to  Hebrew  ideals  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
they  persisted  in  sharing  the  worship  at  Jerusalem  until 
after  the  Introduction  of  the  priestly  laws,  which,  like 
the  Jews,  they  accept  as  a  part  of  their  torah.  The 
puritanic  movement,  inaugurated  by  Nehemlah  and 
Ezra,  finally  led  them  to  withdraw,  and.  In  time  they 
built  a  rival  temple  on  Mount  Gerizlm.  The  friction 
caused  by  this  schism  lasted  for  many  centuries  (cf. 
John  4:  20-21). 

Nehemlah  and  Ezra  organized,  not  only  the  life  of 
the  people,  but  the  ritual.  The  various  orders  of  Le- 
vites  were  assigned  their  duties,  some  of  them  becoming 
the  temple  musicians.     It  was  probably  at  this  time  that 


THE  REORGANIZED  JEWISH   STATE  139 

the  first  book  of  the  Psalter,  which  then  consisted  of 
Psalms  3-41,  was  compiled  and  edited.  It  was  named 
for  David;  why,  we  cannot  now  tell.  Perhaps  the  hymn 
with  which  It  opened  was,  or  was  believed  to  be,  written 
by  David.  It  contained,  however,  the  work  of  many 
later  poets.  Psalms  8  and  19,  for  example,  make  defi- 
nite allusion  to  the  work  of  the  author  of  the  priestly 
document. 

In  the  period  between  Ezeklel  and  Nehemlah  the 
prophetic  movement  reached  Its  end.  Never  since  has 
Israel  produced  prophets  like  those  who  composed  Isa., 
chaps.  40-66.  The  two  or  three  minor  prophets  who 
appeared  later  are  so  far  inferior  that  they  do  not  come 
into  comparison.  In  Isa.  40-66  the  last  great  exponents 
of  prophecy  gave  utterance  to  some  of  Its  profoundest 
and  most  spiritual  Ideals. 

This  period,  too,  witnessed  the  culmination  of  that 
movement  which  transformed  the  Hebrew  nation  Into 
the  Jewish  church.  This  transformation  began  with  the 
prophets  of  the  eighth  century;  It  had  produced  the 
fusion  of  prophetic  and  legal  Ideas  In  Deuteronomy, 
the  blending  of  the  prophetic  and  priestly  Interests  In 
Ezeklel  and  the  author  of  the  Holiness  Code,  and 
finally  the  austere  monotheistic  laws  of  the  priestly 
document.  The  external  fortunes  of  the  nation  had 
providentially  facilitated  the  adoption  of  the  higher 
Ideals,  and  the  effort  to  conserve  these  ideals  had  called 
into  existence  a  ritual  which  for  ever  separated  Israel 
from  the  heathen  cults  of  her  kindred. 


140  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 


TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  The  Temple  as  Rebuilt;  cf.  "Temple,  the  Second"  in 
the  Jeivish  Encyclopedia,  Vol.  XII,  p.  97  ff. 

2.  The  Servant  of  Yahweh ;  cf .  Budde,  "  The  So-called 
*  Ebed-Yahweh  Songs '  and  the  Meaning  of  the  Term  '  Servant 
of  Yahweh  '  in  Isaiah,  Chaps.  40-55,"  in  The  American  Journal 
of  Theology,  HI,  pp.  499-540. 

3.  The  Nature  and  Influence  of  the  Babylonian  Exile;  cf. 
J.  P.  Peters,  The  Religion  of  the  Hebrews,  Boston,  1914,  chap- 
ter XX. 

4.  The  Relation  of  the  P.  Document  to  the  Babylonian  Cre- 
ation-Myth; cf.  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  Phil- 
adelphia, 2nd  ed.,  1917,  Part  II,  chapter  i. 

5.  The  Conception  of  God  in  the  P.  Document;  read  the 
document  as  arranged  in  Addis,  Documents  of  the  Hexateuch, 
London,  1 892-1 898,  Vol.  II,  noting  the  conception  of  God. 

6.  The  Origin  of  the  Levitical  Cities;  cf.  G.  A.  Barton, 
"  The  Levitical  Cities  of  Israel  in  the  Light  of  the  Excavation 
at  Gezer"  in  The  Biblical  World,  Vol.  XXIV,  pp.  167-179- 


CHAPTER  IX 

LEGALISM 

Legal  Attitude  of  Malachi  —  Beginnings  of  the  Psalter  —  The  Law  as 
a  Background  for  Piety  —  Persecution  under  Persians  —  Alexander 
the  Great  —  Chronicles  —  The  Last  of  the  Prophets  —  Universality 
in  Religion  —  The  Synagogue  —  The  Maccabaean  Revolt  —  Ni- 
canor's  Day  —  Simon  Prince  and  High  Priest — Completion  of  the 
Psalter  —  Psalmists  praise  the  Law  —  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  — 
The  Oral  Law  —  Hillel  and  Shammai  —  Nature  of  Oral  Law  — 
Mishna  and  Talmud. 

With  the  adoption  of  the  Levltical  law  in  the  time  of 
Nehemiah  the  foundations  of  Judaism  had  been  laid, 
but  the  edifice  was  not  completed.  During  the  centu- 
ries which  followed  the  superstructure  was  gradually 
erected.  The  Jews  who  were  resident  in  Palestine  seem 
to  have  accepted  the  law  at  once,  though  the  acceptance 
on  the  part  of  many  of  them  was  not  enthusiastic.  The 
prophecy  which  now  passes  under  the  name  of  Malachi 
was  apparently  written  to  persuade  the  Jews  faithfully 
to  support  the  law.  Whether  it  was  written  before 
Nehemiah's  reforms  or  soon  after  them.  Is  a  point  on 
which  scholars  are  not  agreed.  It  seems  probable  that 
it  was  written  before  that  reform.  In  any  case  It  is 
clear  that  the  message  of  this  book  Is  addressed  to  an 
age  whose  Ideals  were  legalistic,  and  that  it  is  the  proph- 
et's effort  to  persuade  the  men  of  the  time  to  live  up  to 
these  Ideals.      He  says  in  3  :  8  f . : 

141 


142  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

Will  a  man  rob  God  ?     Yet  ye  rob  me. 
But  ye  say,  Wherein  have  we  robbed  thee? 
In  tithes  and  offerings 

Ye  are  cursed  with  a  curse; 

For  ye  rob  me,  even  this  whole  nation. 

Bring  ye  the  whole  tithe  into  the  storehouse, 
That  there  may  be  food  in  my  house, 
And  prove  me  now  herewith. 
Says  Yahweh  of  hosts. 

Whether  I  will  not  open  the  windows  of  heaven, 
And  pour  you  out  a  blessing 
Until  there  is  no  more  need. 

This  utterance  Is  In  striking  contrast  with  that  of 
Amos  5:  25,  which  declared  that  sacrifice  was  no  part 
of  the  original  religion  of  Yahweh.  MalachI,  on  the 
other  hand,  makes  all  blessing  depend  upon  the  faithful 
fulfilment  of  the  ritual.  When  Prophets  took  this  at- 
titude It  Is  clear  that  the  age  of  the  free  spirit  of  proph- 
ecy had  passed  and  the  age  of  legalism  was  approaching. 
The  law  was  not  only  accepted  by  those  In  Jerusalem, 
but  was  soon  disseminated  among  Jews  who  were  resid- 
ing abroad.  The  letter  In  which  Information  concern- 
ing one  part  of  It  was  conveyed  to  the  Jewish  colony 
at  Elephantine  In  Egypt  has  In  part  survived.  It  was 
written  In  419  B.  c.  by  one  Hananlah,  who  was,  per- 
haps,  a  brother  of  Nehemlah.^     The   correspondence 

1  See  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  Philadelphia,  Part  II, 
ch.  xix,  §  2. 


LEGALISM  143 

from  Elephantine  Indicates  that  the  new  law  was  ac- 
cepted there  and  obeyed,  and  that,  in  consequence,  the 
Jews  resident  in  Egypt  became  more  obnoxious  to  their 
Egyptian  neighbours  than  they  had  been  before. 

After  the  reorganization  of  the  time  of  Nehemiah, 
one  of  the  first  undertakings  was  to  provide  the  re- 
formed religion  a  suitable  hymn  book.  Our  present 
Psalter,  as  will  be  pointed  out  more  fully  in  another 
chapter,  is  the  result  of  a  gradual  compilation,  but  the 
beginning  of  its  growth  dates  probably  from  this  time. 
The  first  book  of  Psalms,  comprising  Psalms  3-41,  was 
apparently  compiled  during  this  period.  It  is  alto- 
gether probable  that  older  hymns  were  included  in  the 
compilation,  but  we  may  be  sure  that  such  were  re-edited 
to  express  the  religious  point  of  view  of  the  reformed 
faith.  An  age  that  did  not  hesitate  to  readjust  the 
laws  of  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  (Ex.  20:  24-23:  19) 
and  of  Deuteronomy  so  that  the  code  of  Leviticus  should 
appear  to  be  the  heart  of  the  whole  legislation  of 
Moses,  would,  we  may  be  sure,  take  good  care  that  the 
sentiments  expressed  in  the  hymn  book  did  not  belie 
those  expressed  in  the  law. 

It  is  often  a  relief  to  pious  souls,  especially  to  those 
of  a  certain  type,  to  have  the  requirements  of  religion 
laid  down  in  a  set  of  definite  rules  that  can  be  clearly 
known.  One,  it  is  thought,  then  knows  when  he  Is 
righteous  and  when  he  is  not.  There  Is  a  definite  stand- 
ard by  which  the  achievements  of  life  can  be  measured. 
It  is  easy  to  understand,  therefore,  how  the  law,  which 


144  'T^^^  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

had  reached  Its  completion  In  this  period,  was  venerated 
by  some  of  the  best  spirits  of  the  time.  One  of  these 
has  beautifully  expressed  his  appreciation  of  It  In  Ps. 
19:  7  f.: 

The  law  of  Yahweh  is  perfect,  restoring  the  soul ;  ^ 
The  testimony  of  Yahweh  is  sure,  making  wise  the  simple; 
The  precepts  of  Yahweh  are  right,  rejoicing  the  heart; 
The  commandment  of  Yahweh  is  pure,  enlightening  the  eyes; 
The  fear  of  Yahweh  is  clean,  enduring  for  ever; 
The  ordinances  of  Yahweh  are  true,  and  righteous  altogether. 
More  to  be  desired  are  they  than  gold,  even  much  fine  gold, 
Sweeter  also  than  honey  and  the  honeycomb. 
Also  thy  servant  is  warned  by  them;  in  keeping  them  is  great 
reward. 

Thus  the  life  of  puritanic  legalism  began  by  evoking 
deep  sentiments  of  thanksgiving  and  gratitude. 

During  much  of  the  following  period  our  sources  af- 
ford almost  no  Information  as  to  what  was  happening 
to  the  little  colony  In  Jerusalem.  Until  the  year  332 
B.  c.  Judea  was  under  Persian  rule,  and  so  far  as  we 
can  tell  few  events  of  Importance  occurred.  It  Is  In- 
ferred from  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xl.  7:1,  that  about 
350  B.  c.  the  Palestinian  Jews  made  another  unsuccess- 
ful attempt  to  regain  their  Independence,  In  consequence 
of  which  the  Persian  governor  punished  them  severely. 

This  unsuccessful  revolt  called  forth  a  new  wave  of 
national  sentiment,  and  was,  perhaps,  the  occasion  of 
the  compilation  of  two  more  books  of  the  Psalter.     In 

1  Literally  "  bringing  the  soul  back  from  captivity." 


LEGALISM  145 

these  books  the  attitude  of  devotion  toward  the  law  Is 
taken  for  granted.  Thus  Ps.  78,  which  Is  a  long  poeti- 
cal review  of  the  fortunes  of  the  nation  as  those  for- 
tunes are  recounted  In  the  earlier  Scriptures,  begins : 

Give  ear,  O  my  people,  to  my  law: 

Incline  your  ear  to  the  words  of  my  mouth. 

A  little  further  on  It  assigns  the  following  reason : 

For  he  established  a  testimony  in  Jacob, 

And  appointed  a  law  in  Israel, 

Which  he  commanded  our  fathers, 

That  they  should  make  them  known  to  their  children. 

(Ps.  78:5.) 

Thus  In  the  passing  of  these  years,  of  which  we  have 
almost  no  outward  record,  the  law  continued  to  evoke 
the  devotion  of  some  of  the  best  minds. 

With  Alexander's  conquest  the  Jews  passed  under 
Greek  control,  and  when  the  wars  which  followed  Alex- 
ander's death  were  over  the  Jews  were  for  a  hundred 
years  subject  to  the  Ptolemies  of  Egypt.  Suffering 
much  from  the  contentions  of  the  Seleuclds  of  Antloch 
and  the  Ptolemies,  they  finally  passed  In  199  b.  c.  under 
the  control  of  the  Seleuclds.  During  much  of  this  time 
they  had  been  left  to  govern  themselves  with  little  out- 
side Interference.  Jewish  colonies  were  established  In 
increasing  numbers  all  over  the  eastern  Mediterranean, 
and  contact  with  foreigners  tended  to  broaden  the 
thought  of  many  Jews.     In  time  the  devotees  of  the 


146  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

law  produced  the  Book  of  Chronicles  —  an  expurgated 
edition  of  the  history  of  Israel.  This  work  represents 
the  great  worthies  of  the  nation  as  keeping  the  Levitical 
law,  and  David  as  assigning  to  the  Levites  their  duties ! 
Then  as  now  the  Influence  of  ritualism  was  not  wholly 
bad.  Mystically  Inclined  souls  made  it  the  basis  of  an 
attractive  piety.  Such  a  piety  is  not  the  most  spiritual, 
but  It  may  be  thoroughly  genuine. 

Early  in  the  Greek  period  the  last  of  the  prophets 
lived.  What  name  he  bore  we  do  not  know.  His  work 
in  later  time  was  bound  up  with  that  of  the  prophet 
Zechariah  and  now  forms  chapters  9-14  of  the  book  of 
that  prophet.  Perhaps  the  prophet  bore  the  same  name 
as  that  of  the  contemporary  of  Haggai.  It  may  be  that 
it  was  identity  of  name  that  led  to  the  fusion  of  their 
prophecies. 

That  this  second  Zechariah  lived  in  the  Greek  period 
is  clearly  shown  by  Zech.  9:  13,  and  other  considera- 
tions lead  us  to  think  that  he  lived  in  the  third  century 
B.  c.  This  writer  was  conscious  that  he  was  the  last  of 
the  prophets,  for  he  predicts  that  in  future  there  shall 
be  no  more  prophets,  and  that,  if  any  one  shall  presume 
to  prophesy  his  father  and  mother  shall  assist  in  putting 
him  to  death  (Zech.  13:3).  His  prediction  was  ful- 
filled. No  more  prophets  arose.  An  incident  of  the 
time  of  the  Maccabees  (see  i  Mace.  4 •46)  shows  how 
pathetically  Israel  longed  for  the  guidance  of  the  pro- 
phetic voice  which  was  heard  no  longer. 

This  prophet  was  not  so  completely  absorbed  in  the 


LEGALISM  147 

law  as  Malachi,  but  he  nevertheless  took  the  law  and 
its  institutions  for  granted.  He,  like  the  author  of 
Micah  4:  1-5,  looked  for  a  time  when  the  religion  of 
Israel  should  become  universal,  and  should  command 
the  devotion  of  the  nations  of  the  earth.  This  devotion 
was  in  his  opinion  to  be  manifested  in  an  annual  coming 
of  all  peoples  to  Jerusalem  to  observe  the  feast  of  Tab- 
ernacles; that  is,  it  was  to  be  manifested  in  a  ritual 
observance  of  at  least  a  part  of  the  law. 

The  hold  of  the  law  on  the  Jewish  people  was  greatly 
strengthened  by  the  institution  of  the  synagogue,  the 
origin  and  development  of  which  are  shrouded  in  great 
obscurity.  With  the  adoption  of  the  Deuteronomic  law 
all  sanctuaries  except  one  were  done  away.  So  long  as 
no  substitute  was  provided  this  reform  deprived  all 
Jews  who  resided  outside  of  Jerusalem  of  the  privilege 
of  worship  except  on  those  rare  occasions  when  they 
could  go  to  Jerusalem.  Such  a  situation  was  naturally 
intolerable,  and  the  synagogue  was  called  into  existence 
to  relieve  it.  It  is  thought  by  some  that  synagogues  be- 
gan to  be  employed  during  the  Babylonian  exile.  How- 
ever this  may  be  it  is  certain  that  many  of  them  existed 
in  Babylonia  in  later  time,  but  the  same  is  true  of  all 
other  communities  of  Jews  outside  of  Palestine.  There 
were  many  synagogues  in  Palestine  itself  before  the 
Maccabaean  revolt,  for  a  passage  often  ascribed  to  the 
Maccabaean  period  complains: 

"  They  have  burned  up  all  the  synagogues  of  God  in  the  land." 

(Ps.  74:8.) 


148  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

It  is  certain  therefore  that  the  synagogue  had  its  origin 
at  some  time  after  the  adoption  of  the  Deuteronomic 
law  and  before  the  Maccabaean  uprising. 

In  the  synagogue  there  was  no  sacrifice;  it  was  a 
place  for  the  reading  and  exposition  of  the  law.  No 
ornate  ritual  distracted  the  attention  from  the  great 
regulations  of  the  Pentateuch.  Though  the  voice  of 
God  was  thought  no  longer  to  speak  to  the  chosen 
people  as  it  had  once  done  through  the  prophets,  or  as 
God  had  done  face  to  face  with  Moses  and  the  Patri- 
archs, yet  here  were  the  commands  that  God  had  ut- 
tered to  these  holy  men  in  the  days  of  old.  They  were 
commands  of  life;  to  keep  them  was  to  obtain  God's 
favour.  The  synagogue  centred  the  attention  upon 
them;  it  tended  to  exalt  the  law. 

In  Jerusalem  itself  much  eagerness  was  manifested 
for  Grecian  forms  of  life,  though  deep  devotion  to  the 
law  remained  in  many  faithful  hearts.  In  168  B.C. 
Antiochus  Epiphanes  endeavoured  to  blot  out  the  Jew- 
ish religion  and  to  Hellenize  the  Jews.  An  altar  to 
Zeus  was  to  be  established  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem 
and  swine  offered  in  sacrifice  upon  it.  In  the  smaller 
towns  altars  were  to  be  erected  and  similar  sacrifices 
made.  The  priests  and  people  of  Jerusalem  yielded  to 
the  royal  order  without  serious  struggle,  but  in  the 
little  village  of  Modein,  on  the  borders  of  the  Philis- 
tine plain,  Mattathias,  an  old  priest,  struck  down  the 
pliant  Jew  who  was  offering  a  sacrifice  to  Zeus  and 
called  the  Jews  to  war.     The  band  who  followed  him 


LEGALISM 


149 


and  his  seven  stalwart  sons  was  small,  but  for  a  year 
they  maintained  themselves.  At  the  same  time  others 
besides  them  were  faithful.  We  hear  of  a  woman  and 
seven  sons  who  remained  constant  to  their  religion 
under  torture  and  who  suffered  cruel  deaths;  (see  2 
Mace.  7).  Reference  is  probably  made  to  this  family 
in  Heb.  11  :  35,  36.  Those  who  held  views  like  those 
of  Mattathias  and  this  devoted  mother  called  them- 
selves Chasidhn,  or  "  the  pious."  These  followed  the 
old  priest  and  with  extraordinary  courage  they  with- 
stood the  mighty  Syrians.  Mattathias  held  out  under 
the  hardships  but  little  more  than  a  year.  When  he 
passed  away  he  exhorted  his  sons  to  follow  the  lead- 
ership of  his  son  Judas,  although  he  was  not  the  oldest 
of  the  family.  This  they  did.  Judas  with  great  cour- 
age and  consummate  generalship  defeated  the  Syrians 
In  three  separate  battles,  and  was  able  in  December, 
165  B.C.,  just  three  years  after  the  temple  had  been 
defiled  by  the  sacrifice  of  swine  to  Zeus  on  Its  altar,  to 
dedicate  It  again  to  the  worship  of  Yahweh.  This 
dedication  was  a  great  event  —  so  great  that  it  was 
afterward  commemorated  annually  in  a  new  festival, 
called  the  Feast  of  the  Dedication,  which  is  mentioned 
In  John  10:  22.  Because  of  his  great  successes  Judas 
was  called  Makkab,  or  "  The  Hammer,"  and  so  the 
war  came  to  be  called  the  Maccabaean  war. 

The  Syrians  kept  up  the  struggle  with  varying  suc- 
cess. In  161  B.C.  Judas  won  a  signal  victory  over  the 
Syrian    general    NIcanor    under    circumstances    which 


150  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

caused  great  joy  among  the  Jews.  This  victory  was 
celebrated  in  a  yearly  festival  known  for  a  time  as 
Nicanor's  Day,  but  which  Is  now  called  the  Feast  of 
Purim. 

With  the  restoration  of  their  religion  the  Chasidim 
were  satisfied,  but  not  so  the  Maccabaean  brothers. 
They  now  aimed  at  political  Independence,  and,  accord- 
ingly, prolonged  the  war.  The  defection  of  the  Chasi- 
dim greatly  weakened  them,  and  reverses  followed. 
The  war  was  prolonged  for  twenty-five  years  from  Its 
beginning,  and  was  not  terminated  until  143  B.C.  The 
Maccabees  would  soon  have  been  crushed  out,  but  for 
the  rivalries  in  the  royal  house  of  the  Seleucldae  In 
Syria.  Judas  was  killed  in  battle  In  161  B.C.,  when 
his  brother  Jonathan  became  leader.  As  one  Syrian 
faction  after  another  tried  to  obtain  the  support  of 
the  Jews  Jonathan  dextrously  advanced  the  fortunes 
of  the  nation.  In  153  B.C.  Jonathan  became  high  priest, 
and  when,  ten  years  later,  Jonathan  was  treacherously 
murdered  by  one  of  the  Syrian  leaders,  his  brother 
Simon,  the  only  survivor  of  the  seven  sons  of  Matta- 
thlas,  succeeded  to  the  honour. 

In  the  same  year  a  new  treaty  with  Demetrius  II  of 
Syria  acknowledged  the  independence  of  Judah,  and 
an  assembly  of  the  Jews  was  held  In  Jerusalem  at  which 
It  was  ordained  that  "  Simon  should  be  their  prince 
and  high  priest  for  ever,  until  there  should  arise  a  faith- 
ful prophet"    (I  Mace.   14:41).     In  the  judgment  of 


LEGALISM  151 

many  scholars  Psalm  no  was  written  at  this  time  and 
addressed  to  Simon. 

This  struggle,  resulting  in  a  political  liberty  such 
as  they  had  not  possessed  for  six  hundred  years,  cre- 
ated among  the  Jews  a  new  devotion  to  their  country 
and  their  God,  and  made  a  deep  impress  upon  their 
religion  and  literature.  Under  the  Asmonaean  kings, 
who  were  descended  from  the  Maccabees,  and  who 
ruled  down  to  63  B.C.,  the  limits  of  the  realm  were  ex- 
tended almost  as  far  as  in  the  glorious  reigns  of  David 
and  Solomon. 

As  a  part  of  the  expression  of  the  new  national  and 
religious  spirit  evoked  by  the  achievement  of  this  inde- 
pendence an  addition  was  made  to  the  Psalter.  Books 
iv  and  v  of  that  hymnal  were  probably  collected  at  this 
time.  The  greater  part  of  that  collection  we  leave 
for  consideration  at  a  later  point,  and  call  attention 
here  to  but  one  psalm,  as  that  psalm  is  a  remarkable 
witness  to  the  place  held  by  the  law  in  the  affections 
of  the  pious  Jews  of  the  time.  Reference  is  made  to 
Ps.  119  which  is  a  collection  of  alphabetical  eight-hne 
verses  on  the  law. 

For  some  time  Hebrew  psalmists  had  been  fond  of 
writing  alphabetical  acrostics,  or  psalms,  each  verse  of 
which  should  begin  with  a  successive  letter  of  their 
alphabet.  The  author  of  Ps.  119  carried  this  device 
further.  He  composed  a  poem  in  which  the  law  is  cele- 
brated, employing  first  eight  verses,  each  one  of  which 


152  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

begins  with  Aleph,  the  first  letter  of  the  alphabet,  then 
eight  verses,  each  one  of  which  begins  with  Beth,  the  sec- 
ond letter,  and  so  on  throughout  the  twenty-two  letters 
of  his  alphabet.  The  result  Is  a  hymn  consisting  of  176 
verses.  As  eight  different  words  for  law  are  employed 
It  Is  an  eight-fold  psalm  In  more  senses  than  one. 

The  Impressive  thing  about  the  psalm  Is  the  writer's 
devotion  to  the  law  —  a  devotion  which  Is  thoroughly 
sincere,  and  which  almost  exhausts  language  as  it  seeks 
expression.     He  begins  with 

Blessed  are  they  that  are  perfect  in  the  way 
Who  walk  in  the  law  of  Jehovah. 


He  prays: 


Open  thou  mine  eyes,  that  I  may  behold 
Wondrous  things  out  of  thy  law,  (v.  18). 

Again  he  exclaims: 

Oh  how  I  love  thy  law! 

It  Is  my  meditation  all  the  day.   (v.  97). 

Toward  the  end  he  declares: 

Great  peace  have  they  that  love  thy  law; 

And  they  have  no  occasion  of  stumbling,   (v.  165). 

It  was  out  of  such  devotion   as  this  that  Pharisaism 
grew. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Maccabaean  outbreak  the 
Chasidim,  as  we  have  pointed  out,  supported  the  Mac- 
cabees.    When,  however,  religious  liberty  had  been  se- 


LEGALISM  153 

cured  and  the  Maccabees  pushed  on,  won  political  lib- 
erty, and  established  a  worldly  state  they  lost  the  sym- 
pathy of  the  Chasidim.  These  Jewish  puritans  thought 
a  high  priest,  who  was  at  the  same  time  a  worldly 
prince,  and  who  often  treated  religious  matters  from 
the  point  of  view  of  statecraft,  a  renegade.  As  time 
went  on  the  friction  increased,  and  in  the  reign  of  Alex- 
ander Jannaeus,  104-79  ^-C,  the  opposition  of  this 
party,  which  had  taken  the  name  of  Pharisees,  or  "  sep- 
aratists," caused  much  embarrassment  to  the  govern- 
ment. When  Alexander  left  the  government  to  his 
widow,  Alexandra,  in  79  b.  c,  he  counselled  her  to  rule 
in  accordance  with  pharisaical  ideas,  and  thus  the  Phar- 
isees, who  were  the  most  numerous  element  in  Judaism, 
became  dominant. 

Out  of  this  friction  the  opposition  party,  the  Saddu- 
cees  grew.  They  were  the  Maccabaean  or  Asmonaean 
house  and  its  friends.  They  included  the  priestly, 
wealthy,  and  aristocratic  class.  They  were  officially, 
but  not  enthusiastically  religious,  and  it  is  probable  that 
the  name  Sadducees,  "  righteous  ones,"  was  given  them 
in  derision. 

The  Pharisees  were  radical  where  the  Sadducees  were 
conservative,  and  conservative  where  the  Sadducees 
were  radical.  Along  with  the  supernaturalization  of 
the  messianic  hope  and  faith  in  a  resurrection  there 
had  grown  up  a  belief  in  numerous  demons  and  angels. 
The  apocalypses  of  the  period  contain  many  of  their 
names,   so   definite  had  their  personalities  become   in 


154  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

the  popular  thought.  All  this,  together  with  the  new 
doctrine  of  the  resurrection,  the  Pharisees  accepted, 
but  the  more  sceptical  Sadducees  did  not.  Some  of 
the  psalmists  had  protested  against  the  resurrection  — 
It  seemed  so  Incredible  to  them  (see  Ps.  88:  lo;  115: 
17) — and  the  Sadducees  fully  shared  their  views.  As 
to  the  observance  of  the  details  of  the  law,  the  Sad- 
ducees were  much  less  strict. 

Naturally,  as  the  Pharisees  were  so  much  more  In- 
terested In  the  law,  there  arose  from  their  ranks  the 
copyists  and  students  of  the  law,  who  were  called 
scribes.  In  order  to  enable  faithful  Jews  to  be  sure 
that  they  were  observing  the  law,  a  "  hedge  "  of  oral 
tradition  was  gradually  collected  about  it,  and  schools 
of  the  law  were  established.  So  far  as  we  can  trace 
these  schools  they  began  in  the  reign  of  Herod  the 
Great,  just  before  the  beginning  of  our  era.  Naturally 
there  were  differences  of  opinion  among  the  Pharisees. 
The  school  of  Shammai  interpreted  the  law  with  great 
strictness,  while  Hillel,  who  had  come  from  the  captiv- 
ity in  Babylon  to  establish  a  school  In  Jerusalem,  Inter- 
preted it  far  more  liberally.  For  a  long  time  these 
interpretations  were  not  committed  to  writing;  both 
students  and  teachers  carried  them  In  the  memory.  Ul- 
timately, expanded  by  later  teachers,  they  became  the 
Jewish  MIshna. 

In  their  zeal  to  observe  the  law  rightly  these  legal 
schools  developed  In  time  a  vast  body  of  tradition  which 
dealt  with   all  the  details   of  life.     The  law  forbade 


LEGALISM  155 

work  on  the  Sabbath,  but  obviously  people  could  not 
live  without  dressing  and  eating.  Some  work  was  ac- 
cordingly necessary,  so  a  vast  body  of  traditions  as  to 
what  could  and  could  not  be  done  developed.  These 
traditions  descended  to  such  details  that  they  defined 
the  kind  of  knots  that  a  woman  could  tie  and  untie 
In  making  her  toilet  without  breaking  the  Sabbath. 

Again  Leviticus  (19:29,  23:22)  commanded  that, 
In  reaping,  the  corners  of  a  field  should  not  be  cut,  but 
should  be  left  for  the  poor.  This  law  was  Indefinite, 
and  pious  farmers  were  anxious  to  know  just  what  It 
was  necessary  to  do  to  observe  the  law.  How  much 
must  be  left  for  the  poor  In  order  to  satisfy  the  divine 
requirement?  If  a  man  left  only  one  stalk  standing 
had  he  broken  the  law?  Must  the  standing  grain  nec- 
essarily be  left  In  a  corner?  Would  not  the  middle  of 
the  field  do?  Did  the  law  apply  only  to  grain?  Did 
It  not  apply  to  leguminous  plants  as  well?  Did  It  also 
apply  to  vineyards,  olive  trees,  date  orchards  and  pome- 
granates? If  two  men  shared  a  field  did  they  both 
have  to  leave  a  corner?  If  a  man  left  a  "  corner  "  for 
the  poor  and  they  did  not  take  It,  how  long  must  he 
wait  before  he  could  take  It  himself?  If  through  for- 
getfulness  an  owner  left  more  than  was  Intended  In  a 
field,  could  he  return  and  get  It,  or  must  It  all  be  left 
as  a  "  corner"?  Gradually  the  answers  to  these  ques- 
tions were  worked  out.  It  was  decided  that  the  law 
applies  to  trees  as  well  as  to  grains,  that  a  just  man 
would  leave  one-slxtleth  of  the  produce  of  the  field. 


156  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

though  this  might  vary  according  to  the  size  of  the  field, 
its  fertility,  or  the  number  of  the  poor.  If,  however, 
a  man  left  one  stalk  he  could  not  be  said  to  have  broken 
the  law !  ^ 

In  a  similar  way  all  the  details  of  life  and  of  devotion 
were  covered.  After  about  200  a.d.  the  traditions  that 
had  accumulated  between  HlUel  and  that  time  were 
written  down  in  what  is  called  the  MIshna.  The  law 
went  on  developing  through  additional  commentaries 
for  four  hundred  years  longer.  The  commentaries 
written  between  200  and  600  A.D.  make  up  the  Gemara. 
The  MIshna  and  Gemara  together  comprise  the  vast 
storehouse  of  the  Jewish  Talmud. 

Of  course  most  of  this  Talmud  comes  from  a  time 
later  than  the  Christian  era.  Only  the  merest  nucleus 
can  be  traced  back  to  Hillel  and  Shammai.  Neverthe- 
less as  one  studies  its  vast  elaboration  of  the  details  of 
life,  he  gains  his  best  Insight  into  the  Pharisaism  of 
the  time  of  Christ.  He  appreciates  the  genuine  re- 
ligious desire  of  the  Rabbis,  their  reverence  for  the 
past,  their  love  for  the  law  of  God,  their  conviction 
that  the  living  voice  of  God  was  now  silent,  and  their 
pathetic  loss  of  the  best  in  religion  as  they  were  occu- 
pied with  Its  little  details. 

Pharisaism  was  a  not  unnatural  culmination  of  that 
regard  for  external  law  that,  with  the  introduction  of 
the  priestly  code   and  the  dying  out  of  prophecy,   be- 

1  These  regulations  and  opinions  are  collected  in  the  tract  of  the 
Mishna  and  Talmud  entitled  Peak  or  *'  Corner." 


LEGALISM  157 

came  the  ruling  Idea  of  Jewish  religion.  And  yet,  as 
we  shall  see  In  future  chapters,  this  was  but  one  line 
of  development  In  the  varied  life  of  post-exUIc  Judaism. 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  Legalism,  its  Origin  and  Nature;  cf.  Marti,  Religion  of 
the  Old  Testament,  New  York,  1907,  chapter  iv. 

2.  The  Influence  of  the  Maccabaean  Struggle  on  Judaism; 
cf.  John  P.  Peters,  The  Religion  of  the  Hebrews,  Boston,  19 14, 
Chapter  xxvii. 

3.  Pharisaism;  cf.  Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  III,  pp. 
821-829,  or  Jewish  Encyclopedia,  IX,  pp.  661-666. 

4.  The  Oral  Law;  cf.  The  Jewish  Encyclopedia,  Vol.  IX,  pp. 
423-426. 

5.  The  Synagogue,  its  Organization  and  Services;  cf.  Jeivish 
Encyclopedia,  Vol.  XI,  pp.  619-631. 


CHAPTER  X 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE   PRIESTHOOD  AND  RITUAL 

Primitive  Priests  Older  Men  —  Leivi  as  a  Priest  not  necessarily  of  Tribe 
of  Levi  —  Possible  Origin  of  Leivi  —  Priesthood  in  Time  of 
Moses — In  Time  of  Judges  —  Eli  and  Samuel  —  In  Time  of  David 
and  Solomon  —  Under  the  Two  Kingdoms  —  Influence  of  Deuteron- 
omic  Law  on  Priesthood  —  Ezekiel  Creates  Levites  —  After  Exile 
Priest  represents  Nation  —  Under  Ptolemies  Practical  Rulers  —  Ori- 
gin of  Priestly  Cities  —  Development  of  Ritual  of  Feasts  —  Day  of 
Atonement. 

Among  the  Semitic  nomads  the  priestly  functions  are 
performed  by  the  heads  of  families,  or  the  older  men, 
the  sheiks.  It  was  probably  so  among  the  early  He- 
brews. According  to  a  later  tradition  the  tribe  of  Levi 
was,  In  the  time  of  Moses,  chosen  to  have  a  monopoly 
of  the  priestly  office.  There  Is,  however,  much  In  the 
Bible  that  shows  that  this  tribe  possessed  no  such  mo- 
nopoly during  the  early  periods  of  the  history,  and  there 
is  a  plausible  theory  that  the  tradition  arose  through 
an  accidental,  though  natural,  confusion  of  two  similar 
words.  The  evidence  can  be  most  conveniently  pre- 
sented by  reviewing  the  material  in  chronological  se- 
quence. 

It  Is  clear  from  the  early  traditions  that  there  was  a 
tribe  of  Levi  (Hebrew  lewi)  that  met  with  some  dis- 
aster during  the  struggle  for  the  possession  of  Palestine, 
—  a  disaster  that  was  regarded  as  a  punishment  for 

158 


PRIESTHOOD  AND  RITUAL  1 59 

wickedness;  (see  Gen.  34:  25  ff. ;  49:  5-7).  It  Is,  how- 
ever, doubtful  whether  this  tribe  was  more  definitely 
connected  with  the  priesthood  than  any  other.  It  seems 
probable  that  it  was  reduced  to  a  few  remnants  that 
were  scattered  and  absorbed  by  other  tribes. 

The  narrative  In  Ex.  32:26-29,  from  the  J  docu- 
ment, suggests  that  Lewi  or  Levlte  as  applied  to  a 
priest  may  have  had  quite  a  different  origin.  It  Is  a 
story  of  how  In  a  crisis  In  the  wilderness,  when  the 
religion  of  Yahweh  was  in  danger,  Moses  stood  In  the 
gate  and  said:  "Whoso  Is  on  Yahweh's  side  let  him 
to  me."  The  Hebrew  sentence  contains  no  verb, 
though  the  Greek  has  "  let  him  come  to  me."  It  is 
possible  that  the  Hebrew  originally  had  leweh  //,  "  let 
him  be  joined  to  me."  The  narrative  then  goes  on  to 
state  that  all  the  sons  of  lewi  joined  themselves  to 
Moses,  that  he  sent  them  through  the  camp  to  slay  the 
apostates,  and  after  that  he  bade  them  "  fill  "  their 
"  hands  "  1  to  Yahweh.  This  term  "  fill  the  hand  "  is 
the  term  employed  In  the  Book  of  Judges  for  the  conse- 
cration of  a  priest  (Jud.  17:5-12),  so  that  It  seems 
probable  that  this  story  related  how  the  lewirn,  who  had 
the  privileges  of  exercising  the  priesthood  of  Yahweh, 
acquired  the  right  as  a  reward  for  their  zeal  at  a  time 
when  Yahweh's  religion  was  In  danger.  This  Is  borne 
out  by  the  fact  that  in  the  later  history  men  who  were 
descendants  of  the  tribes  of  Ephraim  and  Judah  acted 
as  priests. 

1  Revised  Version  renders  "  consecrate  yourselves." 


l6o  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

The  priesthood  in  the  time  of  Moses,  according  to 
Ex.  33:7-11  (an  extract  from  the  E  document)  con- 
sisted of  the  guardianship  of  a  shrine  and  the  right  to 
consult  Yahweh  there.  This  shrine  was  a  tent,  called 
the  Tent  of  Meeting,  pitched  apart  from  the  camp,  to 
which  Moses  went  for  consultation  with  Yahweh,  and 
to  which  Yahweh  came  down  in  a  cloud  to  meet  Moses. 
The  perpetual  guardian  of  this  tent,  who  departed  not 
out  of  it,  was  Joshua,  not  a  member  of  the  tribe  of 
Levi,  but  an  Ephraimite.  It  was  only  Moses,  how- 
ever, who  received  the  oracles.  Priesthood  is  here 
portrayed  as  the  keeping  of  a  shrine  and  the  ability  to 
obtain  oracles,  and  at  least  one  of  those  who  partici- 
pated in  it  was  not  a  descendant  of  the  patriarch  Levi. 
He  may  well  have  been  one  of  the  lewim  who  joined 
Moses  in  the  crisis  referred  to  in  Ex.  32 :  26  ff. 

In  the  time  of  the  Judges  the  priesthood  was  not  at 
all  fixed  according  to  the  Levitical  rules  of  later  days. 
Micah,  an  Ephraimite,  though  he  thought  it  better  to 
have  a  lewi  for  a  priest,  if  he  could  obtain  one,  had  no 
hesitation  in  making  one  of  his  own  sons  priest  until 
he  could  do  so  (Jud.  17.)  The  lewi  who  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  story  lived  at  Bethlehem  in  Judah  was  not 
provided  in  advance  with  a  living  by  such  a  system  as 
that  embodied  in  the  Levitical  law,  but  was  under  the 
necessity  of  going  out  to  seek  his  fortune  like  any  other 
poor  boy.  The  sequel  of  the  story  too  reveals  the  fact 
that  this  youth,  whose  double  dealing  led  to  such  per- 
sonal advancement  that  he  became  the  founder  of  the 


PRIESTHOOD  AND  RITUAL  l6l 

long  line  of  priests  at  the  shrine  of  Dan,  was  a  grand- 
son of  Moses. ^  The  attitude  toward  the  priesthood 
that  prevailed  In  the  period  of  the  Judges  Is  quite  con- 
sistent with  the  view  that  the  lewini  who  joined  (lawu) 
themselves  to  Yahweh  In  some  crisis  In  the  wilderness 
established  the  presumption  that  they  and  their  descend- 
ants had  a  better  right  to  the  priesthood  than  others. 
It  Is  quite  Inconsistent  with  the  view  that  the  exclusive 
right  to  the  priesthood  had  been  granted  to  members 
of  the  tribe  of  Levi. 

At  the  opening  of  the  book  of  I  Samuel  Eli  was  priest 
at  the  shrine  of  Shilo.  The  shrine  was  not  a  tent,  but 
a  building  with  doors  (I  Sam.  3  :  15).  Nothing  Is  said 
as  to  whether  Eli  was  a  descendant  of  the  tribe  of  Levi 
or  of  Ephralm,  but  it  Is  noteworthy  that  the  young 
Samuel,  the  son  of  an  Ephralmlte,  was  received  into 
the  temple  as  an  acolyte,  and  slept  in  the  holy  of  holies 
where  the  ark  of  God  was  (I  Sam.  3:3).  Samuel  was 
thus  trained  for  the  priesthood,  and,  when  grown,  him- 
self offered  sacrifices  (I  Sam.  7:9,  10;  9:13;  15  *  33 ; 
16:3  ff.).  During  this  period  something  of  the  old 
Semitic  function  of  the  priest  as  a  seer  or  giver  of  ora- 
cles still  remained,  for  Samuel  was  even  more  noted  as 
a  seer  than  as  a  priest. 

During  the  reigns  of  David  and  Solomon  and  the 
early  days  of  the  divided  kingdom  similar  conditions 
prevailed  In  the  priesthood.  David  made  his  sons 
priests  (II  Sam.  8:  18),  although  the  chief  priest  was 

1  Judges  18:  30. 


l62  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

Ablathar,  a  descendant  of  Ell,  with  whom,  toward  the 
end  of  David's  reign,  Zadok  was  associated.  Abiathar 
was  displaced  by  Solomon  because  he  had  favoured  the 
accession  of  Adonijah,  and  Zadok  was  put  in  his  place 
(I  Kings  2:27,  35).  As  time  passed  on  the  succes- 
sion of  priests  of  the  line  of  Zadok  became  as  regular 
in  Jerusalem  as  the  succession  of  kings  of  the  line  of 
David,  nevertheless  the  right  to  officiate  in  offering 
sacrifice  was  not  confined  to  priestly  families.  Elijah, 
the  Gileadite,  built  altars  and  offered  sacrifices,  al- 
though it  is  nowhere  claimed  that  he  was  a  Levite  (I 
Kings  18:30-38). 

In  the  lapse  of  time  the  priests  of  the  great  shrines, 
especially  of  those  that  received  royal  patronage,  be- 
came personages  of  influence  and  importance.  At 
Bethel  in  the  time  of  the  prophet  Amos  Amaziah  the 
priest  appears  to  have  been  an  important  official  (Amos 
7  :  10) .  At  Jerusalem  in  the  time  of  Athaliah  Jehoiada 
the  priest  was  sufficiently  powerful  to  organize  a  re- 
belHon  (II  Kings  11:4  ff-)^  while  Urijah  in  the  days 
of  Ahaz  was  the  friend  both  of  the  king  and  the 
prophet  Isaiah  (II  Kings  16:  10;  Isa.  8:2). 

During  these  prosperous  centuries  it  was  natural  that 
the  wealth  of  all  the  shrines  in  the  land  should  in- 
crease, and  that  the  priests  who  controlled  this  wealth 
should  increase  in  power  and  influence.  The  wealth 
thus  acquired  was  in  many  instances  invested  in  land 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  city  in  which  the  priests  officiated. 
In  course  of  time,  therefore,  there  were  large  priestly 


PRIESTHOOD  AND  RITUAL  1 63 

estates  in  and  about  the  cities  where  temples  or  high 
places  were  situated. 

The  priesthood  thus  became  a  prosperous  class,  and 
to  a  degree  averse  to  the  performance  of  the  manual 
labour  of  the  priesthood.  In  many  instances  they 
owned  foreign  slaves  whom  they  compelled  to  perform 
the  menial  labour  connected  with  the  shrines  and  the 
sacrifices  (Eze.  44:7). 

The  promulgation  of  the  Deuteronomic  law  in  621 
B.  C.  had  a  profound  influence  on  the  fortunes  of  the 
priesthood.  The  abolition  of  all  the  shrines  except  the 
one  at  Jerusalem  threw  many  of  them  out  of  employ- 
ment. While  there  were  large  estates  in  the  hands  of 
priestly  families, —  estates  accumulated  through  cen- 
turies of  exercise  of  the  priestly  office, —  yet  many  of 
these  estates,  especially  in  the  northern  kingdom,  had 
been  devastated  by  the  Assyrian  invasions.  The  Deu- 
teronomic law  endeavoured  to  remedy  the  distress 
caused  by  the  centralization  of  the  worship  by  providing 
that  any  priest  might  come  to  Jerusalem  from  any  part 
of  the  land  and  exercise  the  priestly  office  in  Jerusalem 
(Deut.  18:6-8).  The  idealists  who  framed  the  law 
thought  thus  to  prevent  the  priestly  emoluments  from 
becoming  a  monopoly  in  the  hands  of  the  descendants 
of  Zadok.  The  vested  interests  of  that  house  in  the 
sanctuary  at  Jerusalem  proved  to  be  more  potent  than 
the  Deuteronomic  law,  even  though  that  law  was  be- 
lieved to  be  the  law  of  Moses.  The  priests  from  the 
high  places  or  country  shrines  were  not  permitted  to 


164  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

enter  the  sanctuary  at  Jerusalem  as  priests  or  to  share 
in  the  income  that  was  to  be  derived  from  that  source 
(II  Kings  23  :  9).  It  thus  came  about  that  there  were 
during  the  last  years  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah  many 
priests  and  members  of  priestly  families  who  were  with- 
out occupation  or  income.  Even  had  they  been  permit- 
ted to  share  in  the  emoluments  of  the  priestly  office 
these  would  not  have  sufficed  for  all.  The  Deuter- 
onomic  legislators  were  aware  of  this,  and,  knowing  that 
their  reform  would  deprive  many  of  these  people  of 
income,  they  commended  the  Levites  to  the  charity  of 
the  people  along  with  the  stranger,  the  widow,  and  the 
fatherless  (Deut.  14:  29;  cf.  12:  19  and  14:  27).  The 
changes  introduced  by  the  Deuteronomic  reform  tended 
to  give  the  priesthood  of  the  city  of  Jerusalem  a  more 
prominent  and  influential  position  in  the  realm.  Ez- 
ekiel,  who  was  both  a  priest  and  a  prophet,  and  who 
in  his  early  life  had  served  in  the  temple  in  Jerusalem, 
pondered  during  the  Babylonian  exile  the  religious 
problems  of  his  people  and  laid  plans  for  the  reorgani- 
zation of  their  life.  He  proposed  a  plan  that  remedied 
two  evils.  It  banished  the  foreign  slaves  from  Yah- 
weh's  temple,  and  it  gave  employment  to  the  priests  who 
had  been  unfrocked  by  the  Deuteronomic  reform.  In 
the  Deuteronomic  law  every  Levite  was  a  priest,  or  a 
potential  priest  (Deut.  18:  i  ff.).  The  two  terms  in 
that  law  are  coextensive;  they  are  constantly  put  in  ap- 
position the  one  with  the  other.  Ezekiel  really  legis- 
lated the  Levites  as  a  class  separate  from  the  priesthood 


PRIESTHOOD  AND  RITUAL  1 65 

Into  existence  by  providing  that  the  priests  of  the  aban- 
doned high  places  should  in  future  be  debarred  from 
the  priestly  office,  but  should  perform  the  menial  duties 
of  the  sanctuary  (Eze.  44:  8-13). 

This  plan  of  Ezekiel  appealed  to  the  priestly  legis- 
lators who  came  after  him.  In  the  main  priestly  docu- 
ment written  about  450  B.C.  we  find  the  distinction  be- 
tween priests  and  Levltes  clearly  made  (see  Num.  16: 
10,  18-23).  As  time  passed  the  different  families  of 
Levltes  were  assigned  different  duties  by  the  supple- 
mentary priestly  laws.  Thus  In  Num.  3  and  4  tKe  care 
of  the  sanctuary  and  of  its  different  vessels  Is  assigned 
to  different  groups  of  Levltes.  By  this  step  the  evolu- 
tion and  organization  of  the  priesthood  became  com- 
plete. 

In  the  Judean  state  as  reorganized  after  the  exile  the 
priests  held  the  most  Influential  place.  In  Zechariah 
3 :  I  Joshua  the  high  priest  stands  as  the  representative 
of  the  nation,  and  In  Zechariah  6:11  two  crowns,  one 
of  silver  and  one  of  gold,  are  to  be  placed  upon  his 
head.  While  It  is  probable  that  in  the  original  form  of 
the  text  the  crown  of  gold  was  Intended  for  Zerubbabel, 
who,  it  was  hoped,  would  become  king,  even  then  the 
high  priest  was  given  rank  only  less  exalted  than  that 
of  the  king.  The  hope  that  Zerubbabel  would  free  the 
nation  from  the  foreign  yoke  was  not  realized,  and  in 
the  years  that  followed  the  high  priest  became  more 
and  more  the  representative  of  the  nation.  Under  the 
early  Ptolemies  he  was  the  practical  ruler  of  Judea, 


1 66  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

and,  until  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  In  70  a.d. 
though  not  always  the  political  head  of  the  nation,  he 
probably  had  more  influence  than  any  other  individual. 
During  the  Maccabaean  struggle  Jonathan  the  Macca- 
bee  was  made  high  priest,  and,  when  independence  was 
regained  in  143  B.c.^  the  high  priest  Simon  was  declared 
to  be  prince  of  the  people  as  well  as  high  priest  (I  Mace. 
14:35-42).  When  his  descendants  became  kings,  the 
priesthood  held  the  regal  sceptre  as  well.  The  dig- 
nity thus  acquired  by  the  supreme  priest  was  an  Index 
of  the  importance  attached  to  all  priests.  The  voice  of 
prophecy  was  silent;  the  priests  held  the  keys  to  the 
things  of  God.  The  reorganization  and  exaltation  of 
the  priesthood  in  the  post-exilic  period  led  to  a  new 
interpretation  of  the  earlier  history.  Since  the  priest- 
hood was  thought  to  have  been  Instituted  by  Moses, 
all  subsequent  history  was  naturally  viewed  In  the  light 
of  this  supposed  fact.  Wherever  there  had  been  a 
high  place,  there  were  large  priestly  estates.  Thus  at 
Schechem,  Gezer,  Hebron,  Beth-shemesh,  Kedesh, 
Taanach,  Ashtaroth,^  Ramoth-GIlead,  Bezer,  GIbeon, 
and  many  other  places,  the  Levites,  who  had  been  made 
by  Ezekiel  and  the  priestly  legislators  the  menial  work- 
ers of  the  sanctuary,  possessed  large  estates.  These 
had  been  referred  to  in  Deut.  18:8  as  their  "patri- 
mony." How  did  it  happen  that  so  many  Levites  were 
connected  with  these  cities  and  possessed  property 
there?     The  priestly  writers  could  only  account  for  it 

1  Called  in  Josh.  21:27,  Be-eshterah,  a  corruption  of  Beth-Ashtoreth. 


PRIESTHOOD  AND  RITUAL  1 67 

on  the  theory  that  Joshua  had  assigned  these  cities  to 
the  tribe  of  Levi  as  a  means  of  support  instead  of 
giving  it  a  compact  inheritance  such  as  the  other  tribes 
received.  This  theory  was  put  forth  by  the  priestly 
supplementer  who  wrote  Joshua  21,  and  was  repeated 
with  some  variations  in  detail  by  the  Chronicler  in  I 
Chron.  6.  That  it  is  a  later  interpretation  and  does 
not  correctly  represent  the  real  history  of  pre-exilic 
times  has  been  abundantly  shown  by  the  excavations 
at  Gezer,  Taanach,  and  Beth-shemesh,  which  show  that 
the  worship  of  the  heathen  Semitic  high  places  was 
practised  in  these  places  down  to  the  time  of  the  Deu- 
teronomic  reform,  if  not  till  the  exile.^  The  same  was 
probably  true  of  cities  like  Ashtaroth,  the  very  name  of 
which  connects  it  with  the  primitive  Semitic  mother- 
goddess.  At  Hebron  there  was  a  place  of  sacrifice  In 
the  time  of  David  (II  Sam.  15:7  ff.),  and  at  Gibeon 
in  the  time  of  Solomon  (I  Kings  3:4)-  Could  the 
complete  history  of  these  Levitical  cities  be  written  it 
seems  probable  that  in  each  case  it  would  be  found 
that  each  had  been  the  centre  of  an  independent  shrine 
in  the  days  before  Josiah's  reform. 

This  view  is  confirmed  by  a  study  of  the  Levitical 
cities  and  genealogies.  Thus  Hebron  is  a  city  of  Judah 
(Josh.  15  :  13)  belonging  to  the  clan  of  Caleb;  in  Josh. 
21  :  13  it  Is  a  Levitical  city  given  to  the  house  of  Aaron 
the  priest;  in  I  Chron.  6:  18  it  Is  a  Levitical  clan. 
Eshtemoa  Is  a  clan  of  Judah  in  I  Chron.  4:  17,  19,  but  a 

1  See  G.  A.  Barton  in  the  Biblical  World,  167-179. 


l68  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

Levitlcal  city  In  Josh.  21:13.  ^^  I  Chron.  2  :  43  Korah 
is  a  clan  of  Judah  connected  with  Hebron;  in  I  Chron. 
6:  37  a  clan  of  Levi  (cf.  also  Num.  16)  ;  while  in  the 
Psalter  the  "  Sons  of  Korah  "  are  a  clan  of  Levitical 
singers  for  whom  a  small  hymn-book  was  named  (Ps. 
42  ff.).  In  I  Sam.  i:  i  Zuph  is  an  Ephraimite;  in  I 
Chron.  6:35,  a  Levite.  It  thus  appears  that  in  the 
hands  of  the  priestly  writers  the  perspective  of  the  his- 
tory underwent  a  change.  Towns  that  had  contained 
high  places  were  called  by  these  writers  Levitical  cities. 
Clans  that  had  belonged  to  other  tribes  were  regarded 
by  them  as  Levitical  because  they  hailed  from  cities 
where  worship  had  been  maintained  and  claimed  Leviti- 
cal functions.  Believing  that  the  Levitical  law  was  from 
Moses,  the  Chronicler  could  not  Imagine  the  saintly 
David  as  not  observing  it,  so  he  attributed  to  David 
the  organization  of  the  worship  whereby  each  Levitical 
clan  had  Its  appropriate  duty  to  perform  In  connection 
with  the  sanctuary  (I  Chron.  26). 

The  same  feeling  that  led  the  Chronicler  to  believe 
that  this  was  true  led  him  also  to  suppress  many  fea- 
tures In  the  life  of  David  as  recorded  In  the  books  of 
Samuel,  and  to  so  portray  the  lives  of  other  ancient 
heroes,  that  It  would  appear  that  the  law  had  been  ob- 
served through  all  the  history  of  Israel. 

Side  by  side  with  the  development  of  the  priesthood 
there  was  a  development  In  the  regulation  of  the  rit- 
ual. The  directions  for  the  performance  of  each  act 
became  more  specific  as  time  elapsed.     This  Is  partlcu- 


PRIESTHOOD  AND  RITUAL  1 69 

larly  noticeable  in  the  laws  which  governed  the  feasts. 
When  these  are  placed  in  chronological  order,  the 
steady  increase  in  definiteness  is  striking.  In  the  J 
Document,  Ex.  34:  14-28,  it  is  laid  down  that  there 
must  be  three  feasts  before  Yahweh  in  the  year.  No 
time  is  set  for  these  feasts,  except  that  the  feast  of 
unleavened  bread  is  set  for  the  month  Abib.  But  even 
then  no  day  is  fixed  for  it  and  the  mention  of  the  month 
Abib  is  believed  by  many  to  be  a  later  addition.  In  the 
case  of  the  feast  of  weeks  and  the  feast  of  ingathering 
the  month  in  which  they  were  to  be  held  is  not  even 
mentioned. 

In  the  E  Document  the  same  indefinite  provisions 
appear  (Ex.  23  :  14  ff.).  The  only  note  of  time  is  that 
which  places  the  feast  of  unleavened  bread  in  the  month 
Abib  and  states  that  it  shall  be  held  seven  days  (Ex. 
23:15),  but  the  statement  is  here  also  regarded  by 
many  as  a  later  addition.  So  far  as  written  legislation 
goes  it  thus  appears  that  in  the  early  times  the  dates 
of  the  feasts,  their  length,  and  their  ritual  are  alike  un- 
defined. 

Turning  to  the  Deuteronomic  legislation,  in  Deuter- 
onomy 16  we  find  the  beginnings  of  closer  definition. 
The  passover  Is  to  be  kept  seven  days  in  the  month 
Abib;  the  feast  of  weeks  is  to  be  celebrated  seven  weeks 
from  the  time  "  thou  beginnest  to  put  the  sickle  to  the 
standing  grain  ";  the  feast  of  tabernacles  is  to  be  kept 
for  seven  days  after  the  grain  has  all  been  brought  in 
from  the  threshing  floor,  and  the  wine  from  the  wine- 


170  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

press.  In  the  case  of  the  feast  of  weeks  and  the  feast 
of  tabernacles  no  month  is  set,  but  the  time  is  never- 
theless fixed  by  a  practical  rule. 

In  Leviticus  23,  where  the  original  Code  of  Holi- 
ness has  been  expanded  by  the  priestly  writer,  the  tend- 
ency to  closer  definition  of  time  and  of  ritual  has 
proceeded  a  step  further.  The  passover  is  here  set 
for  the  first  month  and  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  month. 
It  is  to  be  kept  seven  days;  they  are  to  be  counted  from 
the  evening  of  the  fourteenth  day  to  the  evening  of 
the  twenty-first  day.  The  whole  time  is  to  be  a  holy 
convocation;  it  is  a  kind  of  Sabbath;  all  ordinary  work 
is  prohibited. 

In  the  case  of  the  feast  of  weeks  the  method  of  reck- 
oning the  seven  weeks  is  more  carefully  defined  than,  in 
Deuteronomy  16,  and  more  specific  directions  are  given 
concerning  the  sacrifices  that  are  to  be  offered. 

The  autumn  festival  is  by  this  code  placed  in  the 
seventh  month;  it  is  directed  that  it  shall  begin  on  the 
fifteenth  day  of  the  month  and  continue  for  seven  days. 
It,  too,  is  made  a  holy  convocation  during  which  ordi- 
nary work  must  cease.  One  has  but  to  read  the  provi- 
sions to  realize  that  Judaism  was  travelling  fast  on  the 
road  to  a  ritual  that  defined  everything. 

The  climax  of  all  this  development  is  reached  in 
Numbers  28  and  29,  where  the  number  of  animals  to 
be  sacrificed  at  each  of  these  festivals,  as  well  as  upon 
the  sabbaths,  the  new  moons,  and  other  feasts  is  care- 
fully defined,  so  that  there  could  be  no  excuse  for  not 


PRIESTHOOD  AND  RITUAL  171' 

performing  the  right  act  at  the  right  time  and  in  the 
right  way.  It  is  clear  from  a  review  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  ritual  that  this  development  went  hand 
in  hand  with  the  emergence  of  the  priesthood  into 
prominence  and  the  concentration  of  power  in  its 
hands. 

Another  development  synchronous  with  the  exalta- 
tion of  the  priesthood  was  the  regulation  of  the  Day  of 
Atonement  on  the  tenth  day  of  the  seventh  month.  The 
ritual  for  this  day  is  set  down  in  Leviticus  16.  It  re- 
quired the  choosing  of  two  goats,  one  of  which  was 
sacrificed  to  Yahweh,  and  its  blood  sprinkled  by  the 
high  priest  on  the  holy  place  and  the  altar.  On  the 
head  of  the  other  goat  the  high  priest  confessed  the  sins 
of  the  people,  after  which  he  was  driven  out  into  the 
wilderness,  where  Azazel,  a  wilderness  demon,  could 
catch  him.  The  ritual  itself  is  very  old.  It  goes  back 
to  fairly  primitive  ideas,  and  yet  it  is  here  perpetuated 
and  connected  with  a  ceremony,  in  which  the  high  priest 
entered  the  Holy  of  Holies  and  made  atonement  for 
the  whole  people. 

It  is  plausible  to  suppose  that  the  Day  of  Atonement 
is  a  development  from  the  primitive  Semitic  custom  of 
wailing  for  Tammuz.^  If  this  be  true,  the  whole  ritual 
is  a  rearrangement  of  Immemorial  ceremonies,  which 
were  perpetuated  by  the  priesthood,  and  made  to  exalt 

^  See  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2  ed.,  London,  1894,  pp. 
411,  414,  and  G.  A.  Barton,  A  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  New  York, 
1902,  pp.  114,  289. 


172  THE  RELIGION  OF  ISRAEL 

the  religious  and  propitiatory  functions  of  the  priest- 
hood In  the  days  of  Its  ascendancy. 

It  Is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  priests  In  the  post- 
exUIc  time  were  conscious  that  the  Day  of  Atonement 
had  Its  beginnings  In  the  customs  of  primitive  Semitic 
heathenism.  In  many  rehglons  primitive  customs  have 
survived,  and  have  undergone  many  reinterpretatlons. 
They  are  of  value  in  each  generation  because  of  what 
they  are  understood  by  that  generation  to  mean.  Into 
that  religious  value  the  origin,  no  matter  how  Interest- 
ing historically,  does  not  enter.  It  was  thus  that  the 
Day  of  Atonement,  when  the  high  priest  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  nation,  entered  the  holy  of  holies  bear- 
ing the  atoning  blood  of  a  sacrifice,  became  one  of  the 
most  solemn  and  religiously  significant  days  In  the  Jew- 
ish religious  year. 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  Priesthood  among  the  Early  Semites;  cf.  W.  R.  Smith, 
Religion  of  the  Semites,  2  ed.  London,  1894,  PP-  47  f^-  79>  349 
fF.,  and  417. 

2.  Who  Officiated  at  the  Sacrifices  in  Early  Hebrew  Times? 
cf.  the  Books  of  Judges,  Samuel,  and  Kings. 

3.  Compare  the  Laws  concerning  Levites  in  Deuteronomy, 
Ezekiel  44,  and  Leviticus  and  Numbers,  using  the  Biblical  text 
of  those  books. 

4.  The  High  Priesthood  in  Post-exilic  Times;  cf.  ''Priests 
and  Levites  "  in  Hastings,  Dictio?iary  of  the  Bible,  Vol.  IV. 


CHAPTER  XI 

ANGELS  AND  DEMONS 

Primitive  Animism  —  Angel  of  Yahweh,  Yahweh  himself  acting  for  a 
Special  Purpose — "Sons  of  the  gods" — Yahweh  a  King  with 
Spirits  as  Courtiers  —  Angels  in  E  Document  —  Cherubim  and 
Seraphim  —  Demons  before  the  Exile  —  The  Prologue  to  Job  — 
Angels  in  Zechariah  —  Names  and  Functions  of  Angels  in  Post- 
Exilic  Time  —  Demons  in  Canonical  Literature  —  Azazel  and 
Satan  —  Attitude  of  Apocryphal  Writers  toward  Angels  —  Four 
Attitudes  toward  Demons  —  Demons  Fallen  Angels  —  Sins  and 
Angels  —  Satan  Author  of  Sin  —  Asmodaeus  —  Demons  Personified 
Qualities. 

As  pointed  out  in  chapter  i,  the  ancient  Semites,  like 
other  people  in  a  similar  stage  of  development,  believed 
that  the  world  was  full  of  spirits.  Every  rock,  tree, 
spring,  or  other  natural  object  was  believed  to  be  ani- 
mated by  a  non-material  existence  similar  to  man's  own 
inner  nature,  only  much  more  powerful.  During  all 
their  early  history  the  Hebrews  continued  to  hold  this 
belief,  although  the  pre-eminence  of  Yahweh  and  his 
jealousy  tended  to  push  the  consciousness  of  other  spir- 
its into  the  background  of  their  thoughts.  Thus  in  the 
early  poems  of  Israel  there  is  no  reference  to  a  spirit 
or  demon,  and,  when  the  text  is  correctly  read,  but  one 
reference  to  an  angel.  This  is  in  Judges  5:23:"  Curse 
ye  Meroz  saith  the  angel  of  Yahweh."      For  the  mean- 

173 


174  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

Ing  of  the  term  "  angel  of  Yahweh  "  we  must  look  to 
its  usage  In  the  J  document. 

In  our  oldest  document  (generally  called  the  J  docu- 
ment) ,  the  term  angel  is  used  to  Indicate  that  Yahweh 
himself  appeared  or  came  to  accomplish  some  special 
purpose  or  mission.  The  Hebrew  word  nial'ak,  which 
means  "  messenger  "  or  angel,  appears  to  come  from  a 
root  that  means  "  to  go  "  or  "  to  send  as  a  messenger," 
and  Its  earliest  usage  shows  that  it  referred  to  the  com- 
ing of  Yahweh  for  the  accomplishment  of  a  special  pur- 
pose. Thus  In  Gen.  16:7  the  angel  of  Yahweh  ap- 
peared to  Hagar,  but  In  verse  13  she  recognized  In  him 
Yahweh  himself.  In  Exodus  3  :  2  the  angel  of  Yahweh 
appeared  to  Moses  at  the  burning  bush,  but  it  was  Yah- 
weh himself  whom  Moses  turned  aside  to  the  bush  to  see 
(v.  4) ,  and  it  was  Yahweh  who  spake  to  Moses  (v.  7) . 
The  angel  of  Yahweh  appeared  to  Gideon  (Judges  6: 
11),  but  It  Is  later  made  clear  (verses  21-23)  ^^at  It 
was  Yahweh  himself.  So  the  angel  of  Yahweh  that 
appeared  to  the  wife  of  Manoah  (Jud.  13:2  ff.)  In 
the  sequel  was  none  other  than  Yahweh.  It  may  thus 
be  taken  for  granted  that  in  the  J  document  the.  angel 
of  Yahweh  Is  not  a  being  distinct  from  Yahweh,  but 
Yahweh  manifesting  himself  for  the  accomplishment 
of  some  particular  purpose. 

In  the  light  of  this  clear  usage  other  passages  in  the 
same  document  become  clear.  When  Yahweh  appeared 
to  Abraham  in  human  form  (Gen.  18)  It  was  the  same 
kind  of  an  appearance  elsewhere  described  by  the  term 


ANGELS  AND  DEMONS  1 75 

angel  of  Yahweh.  In  Gen.  32:4  ff.  doubtless  the 
"  man  "  who  came  to  wrestle  with  Jacob  was  believed 
to  be  Yahweh  himself,  though  the  text  does  not  make 
the  formal  statement.  It  Is  probably  he  that  is  referred 
to  In  Gen.  48:  16  as  "the  angel  that  hath  redeemed 
me"  [Jacob].  The  angel  of  Yahweh  who  appeared 
to  Balaam  In  the  way  (Nu.  22:  22-35)  was,  no  doubt, 
believed  to  be  Yahweh  himself.  In  Joshua  5:  13-15 
the  "  man  "  that  appeared  to  Joshua  as  the  captain  of 
the  host  of  Yahweh  was  In  all  probablHty  thought  to 
be  Yahweh  himself  coming  for  the  help  of  his  people  as 
they  undertook  the  conquest  of  Palestine.  He  Is  prob- 
ably the  same  who  is  said  In  Judges  2 :  i  to  have  moved 
from  Gilgal  to  Bethel. 

It  follows  from  all  this  that  In  early  times  other  spir- 
its did  not  play  a  prominent  part  in  the  thought  or 
consciousness  of  the  Hebrews.  Yahweh  who  had  been 
so  overwhelmingly  manifested  in  the  volcanic  mountain 
was  ready  to  appear  to  his  followers  whenever  they 
needed  his  aid.  He  was  believed  to  have  undertaken 
many  a  mission  for  their  guidance,  comfort,  and  deliv- 
erance. There  was  no  clear  line  of  distinction  between 
Yahweh  and  his  angel.  Such  manifestations  of  Yah- 
weh were  regarded  as  life's  most  desirable  experiences. 
No  higher  praise  could  be  given  to  a  man  than  to  say: 
"  Thou  art  good  In  my  sight  as  an  angel  of  God  (I  Sam. 
29:  9;  II  Sam.  14:  17,  20;  19:  27). 

The  J  document  affords  proof  of  the  existence  of 
supernatural    beings    other    than    Yahweh.     They    are 


176  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

called  In  Gen.  6 :  2-4  "  sons  of  the  gods  "  ^  which  is  the 
Hebrew  way  of  saying  they  were  beings  of  the  same 
class  as  the  gods.  In  the  passage  referred  to  they  are 
said  to  have  come  down  to  earth  and  married  human 
wives,  and  the  offspring  of  such  marriages  are  said  to 
have  been  the  heroes  of  olden  time.  In  this  story  early 
Hebrew  thought  shows  its  original  kinship  with  the 
thought  of  other  nations.  Early  men  have  everywhere 
believed  that  one  who  showed  greater  energy  or  ability 
than  his  fellows  was  either  a  god  or  akin  to  the  gods. 
It  was  this  belief  that  so  often  made  gods  of  early  kings. 
Where  the  belief  did  not  take  this  form,  unusual  ability 
was  frequently  accounted  for,  as  in  the  case  of  Heracles, 
on  the  supposition  that  a  god  was  his  father.  It  was 
in  a  similar  way  that  the  early  Hebrews  accounted  for 
their  heroes,  only  they  did  not  say  that  Yahweh  became 
a  physical  father;  they  were  begotten  by  other  beings 
of  the  divine  order.  It  was  a  thought  that  long  lay 
dormant,  but  was  revived  In  the  last  two  centuries  be- 
fore Christ  In  the  apocalypses  and  turned  to  a  different 
use. 

There  Is  a  story  in  I  Kings  22  which,  although  It 
comes  from  a  document  that  Is  possibly  a  little  later 
than  J,  relates  to  the  period  that  saw  the  com.posltlon 
of  the  J  document  and  may  well  be  considered  with  It. 
It  Is  the  story  of  how  Yahweh  lured  Ahab  to  his  de- 
struction.     It  represents  Yahweh  as  a  monarch  whose 

1  The  English  version  reads  "  Sons  of  God,"  but  the  other  rendering 
is  more  literal. 


ANGELS  AND  DEMONS  1 77 

court  was  composed  of  a  large  number  of  spirits.  Yah- 
weh  Is  said  to  have  consulted  these  spirits  as  an  earthly 
monarch  might  consult  his  courtiers.  The  suggestions 
of  one  and  another  were  rejected  until  a  suggestion 
was  made  that  seemed,  to  the  wisdom  of  the  sovereign, 
practicable.  The  spirits  themselves  were  morally  col- 
ourless. Intrinsically  they  were  neither  good  nor  bad. 
Yahweh  could  send  them  on  missions  for  the  help  or  for 
the  ruin  of  men,  and  the  character  of  the  work  assigned 
to  a  spirit  made  him  for  the  time  being  good  or  evil 
from  the  human  point  of  view.  In  Judges  9 :  23  God 
Is  said  to  have  sent  an  evil  spirit  between  Ablmelech  and 
the  man  of  Schechem,  and  in  I  Samuel  an  evil  spirit 
from  God  is  said  to  have  come  upon  Saul  (I  Sam.  16: 
14-16,  23;  18:  10).  The  story  of  I  Kings  22  Is  of 
great  value  in  that  it  shows  how  the  Hebrews,  who 
had  Inherited  a  belief  in  the  existence  of  many  spirits, 
reconciled,  at  this  stage  of  their  religious  development, 
that  belief  with  the  supremacy  of  Yahweh. 

This  type  of  belief  prevailed  about  750  B.C.  when  the 
E  document  was  composed.  In  Gen.  28:  12  Jacob  is 
said  to  have  seen  the  angels  of  God  ascending  and  de- 
scending upon  the  ladder  at  Bethel,  but  they  were  so 
closely  associated  with  God  himself  that  Jacob  ex- 
claimed: "  This  is  none  other  than  the  house  of  God." 
In  Gen.  31:11  we  are  told  that  the  "  angel  of  God  " 
appeared  to  Jacob  in  Aram,  but  In  31 :  13  he  said:  "  I 
am  the  God  of  Bethel."  The  angel  was,  accordingly, 
only  a  manifestation  of  God.     This  is  borne  out  by 


178  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

Exodus  23  :  21,  where  It  is  said  of  an  angel  "  my  name 
is  in  him."  As  the  name  of  Yahweh  embodied,  to  He- 
brew thought,  the  attributes  of  Yahweh  himself,  the  ex- 
pression implies  that  Yahweh  was  present  in  his  angel. 

Outside  the  passages  discussed  the  term  "  angel  " 
does  not  often  appear  in  the  literature  written  before 
the  Babylonian  exile.  In  Hosea  12:4  it  is  declared 
that  Jacob  "  had  power  over  the  angel," —  a  reference 
to  the  "man"  of  Genesis  32:  24  ff.,  who  was,  as  we 
have  seen,  Yahweh  himself.  Angels  are  said  to  have 
spoken  to  Elijah  and  other  prophets  (I  Kings  19:7; 
II  Kings  1:3,  15),  but  there  is  nothing  to  show  that 
the  "  angel  "  was  not  Yahweh  acting  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  his  purposes.  The  conclusion  seems  warranted, 
therefore,  that  in  the  pre-exilic  time  the  angel  of  Yahweh 
was  not  sharply  distinguished  from  Yahweh,  but  was 
only  a  special  manifestation  of  Yahweh  himself. 

Apart  from  spirits  and  "  sons  of  the  gods  "  we  hear 
of  Cherubim  (Gen.  3  :  24),  who  were,  perhaps,  the  per- 
sonified winds. ^  Isaiah  also  speaks  of  Seraphim  (Isa. 
6:  1-7).  The  seraphim  were  creatures  with  six  wings 
who  were  attendants  of  Yahweh.  While  the  seraphim 
appear  to  have  been  composite  figures,  it  is  probable 
that  they  were  really  winged  serpents,  for  in  Nu.  21:6 
fiery  seraphim  are  really  fiery  serpents.     According  to 

1  See  G.  A.  Barton,  A  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  Social  and  Religious, 
New  York,  1902,  p.  91.  In  addition  to  the  references  there  given  cf. 
Skinner,  Genesis  in  the  International  Critical  Commentary,  New  York, 
1910,   p.  89  ff. 


ANGELS  AND  DEMONS  1 79 

Ezeklel  i  and  lo  the  cherubim  were  composite  creatures, 
part  Hon,  part  ox,  part  eagle  and  part  man.  In  some 
of  the  apocalypses  (Enoch  6i:io;  71:7;  Secrets  of 
Enoch  20:  I ;  21 :  i)  the  seraphim  were  associated  with 
the  cherubim  as  the  guardians  of  Paradise.  In  many 
ancient  religions  serpents  have  been  regarded  as  sacred 
and  there  Is  reason  to  believe  that  such  was  the  case 
In  Israel.^  Probably  the  winds  and  the  serpents,  the 
sacred  associates  of  Yahweh  In  Paradise,  became  In 
later  thought  the  cherubim  and  seraphim. 

In  the  pre-exUIc  literature  there  are  but  few  refer- 
ences to  demons.  In  Deut.  33:  13  It  Is  said  that  the 
deep  (tehotn)  crouches,  and  the  word  for  crouches  Is 
one  often  employed  to  express  the  action  of  an  animal. 
Probably  the  poet  personified  the  deep  just  as  TIamat, 
the  Babylonian  deep,  Is  personified  as  a  great  dragon. 
In  a  later  poem  (see  Deut.  32:  17)  It  Is  said  that  the 
Hebrews  sacrificed  to  Shedim  and  not  to  God.  The 
translators  of  the  Septuagint  regarded  Shedim  as  de- 
mons. Shedim  Is,  however,  the  Assyrian  shedti,  a  bull- 
deity,  and  probably  It  was  used  by  the  Deuteronomic 
poet  to  designate  a  foreign  deity. 

It  thus  appears  that  before  the  exile  the  Hebrews  did 
not  entertain  a  belief  In  demons  In  the  ordinary  sense 
of  the  term.  The  Innumerable  spirits  who  were,  they 
thought,  the  attendants  of  Yahweh,  were  non-ethical  In 
character.  They  might  be  sent  by  him  on  any  sort  of 
a  mission.  If  the  task  assigned  one  of  them  was  help- 
1  See  above,  ch.  vi,  p.  112. 


l8o  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

ful  to  men,  the  spirit  was  good;  if  harmful  to  man,  he 
was  evil.  The  prophet  Amos,  for  example,  was  so 
thorough  a  monotheist  that  he  had  no  room  in  his  the- 
ology for  a  Satan.  He  believed  that  Yahweh  did  all 
that  was  done,  whether  good  or  bad.  He  asks:  "  Shall 
evil  befall  a  city  and  Yahweh  hath  not  done  it?  " 
(Amos  3:6).  Satan  and  his  attendant  demons,  who 
have  played  such  a  prominent  part  in  later  thought,  had 
no  place  in  this  period  of  Israel's  religion.  The 
prophets  of  the  exile,  Ezekiel  and  the  Second  Isaiah, 
maintain  in  general  the  pre-exilic  attitude  with  refer- 
ence to  angels  and  demons.  The  same  is  true  of  the 
Third  Isaiah,  whose  expression  '*  the  angel  of  his  pres- 
ence "  (Isa.  63:  9),  is  probably  a  reference  to  Exodus 
33  :  12  ff.,  where  it  is  promised  that  Yahweh's  presence 
will  accompany  Israel.  To  identify  Yahweh's  presence 
with  his  angel  is  in  thorough  accord  with  pre-exilic 
usage. 

The  point  of  departure  for  the  post-exilic  develop- 
ment is  found  in  the  prologue  of  the  book  of  Job.  This 
prologue  is  older  than  the  poem  itself.  Whether  it 
was  written  before  the  exile  or  later  cannot  now  be 
determined.  It  is  together  with  the  epilogue  the  por- 
tion of  the  original  story  which  the  poet  left  Intact,  when 
he  substituted  his  poetical  discussion  for  the  middle  por- 
tion of  the  prose  narrative.^  In  this  prologue  Yahweh 
Is  represented  as  surrounded  by  a  group  of  "  sons  of  the 
gods,"  or  beings  of  the  divine  class.     As  in  I  Kings  22, 

1  See  below,  ch.  xiii, 


ANGELS  AND  DEMONS  l8l 

these  constitute  his  courtiers.  They  may  go  forth 
through  the  world  at  will,  but  they  have  certain  days 
on  which  they  return  to  pay  their  court  to  Yahweh. 
Satan  is  one  of  these  "  sons  of  the  gods  ";  he,  too,  is  a 
member  of  Yahweh's  court.  These  courtiers  corre- 
spond to  the  angels  of  the  later  time,  just  as  they  cor- 
respond to  the  spirits  of  the  earlier  time.  Satan,  then, 
is  in  this  narrative  still  an  angel,  though  a  disgruntled 
angel.  He  is  not  entirely  happy,  and  accordingly  is 
not  a  contributor  to  the  joy  of  Yahweh.  He  has  be- 
come sceptical  of  human  virtue;  he  believes  that  every 
man  has  his  price.  The  way  in  which  Satan  is  here 
made  to  stand  apart  from  the  other  "  sons  of  the  gods  " 
is  the  starting  point  of  that  later  development  which 
regarded  him  as  a  fallen  angel. 

In  Zechariah,  about  520  B.  C,  the  function  of  the 
angel  as  an  intermediary  between  God  and  man  is  clearly 
developed.  All  of  the  prophetic  messages  of  Zechariah 
are  said  to  have  been  revealed  to  him  by  an  angel 
(Zech.  1:9,  II,  12,  13,  14,  19;  5^5)  10;  6:4,  5)- 
The  conception  that  angels  were  intermediaries  between 
Yahweh  and  men  became  necessary  because  at  this  time 
the  Jews  were  coming  to  think  of  God  as  so  exalted  that 
he  would  not  act  like  a  man.  In  the  priestly  document, 
written  a  few  decades  later  than  this,  God  is  repre- 
sented as  apart  and  remote.  He  no  longer  appears  in 
human  forms  as  in  the  J  document,  nor  does  he  dis- 
course famiharly  with  men.  Religious  thought  sup- 
plied this  lack  of  familiar  converse  with  God  by  the 


I §2  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

belief  that  he  sent  his  messenger.  In  the  writings  of 
this  prophet  Satan  appears  again.  His  character  has 
deteriorated;  he  is  more  mahgnant  than  in  Job,  though 
not  yet  the  arch-fiend  that  he  afterward  became.  He 
here  opposes  the  high  priest,  the  representative  of  the 
nation  Israel.  Satan  was  accordingly  thought  to  be 
the  adversary  of  Israel. 

From  this  time  onward  angels  played  a  prominent 
part  In  Jewish  thought,  though  they  were  much  more 
popular  with  some  writers  than  with  others.  They  are 
called  by  a  variety  of  names,  and  perform  many  differ- 
ent kinds  of  duties.  They  are  called  "  sons  of  the 
mighty"  (Ps.  29:1;  89:6);  "mighty  ones"  (Joel 
3:11);  "  watchmen  "  (Isa.  62  :  6)  ;  "  the  host  of  the 
high  ones"  (Isa.  24:  21)  ;  "morning  stars"  (Job  38: 
7);  "watchers"  (Dan.  4,17);  "holy  ones"  (Zech. 
14:^;  Ps.  89:7);  and  "princes"  (Dan.  10:13,  20, 
21).  Their  functions  were  also  various.  They  acted 
as  God's  council  (Ps.  89:7),  as  intercessors  for  men 
(Job  5:  i),  as  guardians  of  the  righteous  (Ps.  34:7), 
whom  they  bear  up  In  their  hands  (Ps.  91  :  1 1  f.)  ;  they 
are  channels  of  divine  revelation  (Dan.  8:  16  ft.)  ;  they 
inflict  punishment  on  the  wicked  (Ps.  78  :  49)  ;  some  of 
them  guard  nations  ( Dan.  i o :  20,  21).  In  short  It  was 
thought  to  be  their  duty  to  do  whatever  Yahweh  desired 
to  have  done. 

In  one  of  the  latest  of  the  Old  Testament  canonical 
books,  Daniel,  certain  angels  are  exalted  over  other 
angels  and  are  called  "  princes."     It  thus  appears  that 


ANGELS  AND  DEMONS  1 83 

by  the  Maccabaean  time  Jewish  thought  divided  the 
angels  Into  ranks  after  the  manner  of  Persian  thought.^ 
Whether  this  was  a  purely  native  development  may 
well  be  doubted.  It  seems  probable,  since  by  this  time 
Jews  and  Persians  had  been  in  contact  for  some  time, 
that  Jewish  angelology  was  to  some  degree  Influenced 
by  the  Persian. 

In  this  period,  too,  certain  angels  are  so  far  individu- 
alized as  to  be  given  names.  We  meet,  for  example, 
with  Michael  (Dan.  10:  13,  21)  and  Gabriel  (Dan. 
8:  16;  10:4).  This  Is  an  evidence  of  the  increasingly 
prominent  place  angels  were  coming  to  hold  in  religious 
thought.  In  the  earlier  time  angels,  like  the  spirits  that 
preceded  them,  had  been  nameless. 

In  the  canonical  literature  of  the  time  after  the  exile 
demons  also  become  somewhat  prominent.  They  are 
not  so  prominent  as  angels,  and  yet  there  are  several 
references  to  them.  They  also  are  given  various  des- 
ignations. In  Isaiah  34:  14,  where  the  Revised  Ver- 
sion renders  "satyrs"  (margin,  "he-goats"),  the 
Hebrew  means  literally  "  hairy  ones."  They  were  the 
spirits  that  were  supposed  to  haunt  ruins  and  waste 
places  and  are  here  mentioned  In  connection  with  the 
desolation  of  Edom.  The  same  word  ("  hairy  ones  ") 
is  employed  in  Isa.  13:21,  a  passage  written  during 
the  exile.  In  depicting  the  ruins  of  Babylon.  Perhaps 
these  "  hairy  ones  "  were  the  deities  of  foreign  nations, 

1  See  G.  A.  Barton,  The  Religions  of  the  World,  Chicago,  1916,  chap- 
ter vii,  §  131. 


184  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

degraded  In  the  thought  of  the  Hebrews  as  the  Arabs 
afterward  degraded  similar  deities  to  jinn  ^  and  attrib- 
uted to  them  some  of  the  characteristics  of  animals. 
It  is  probably  for  this  reason  that  in  Lev.  17:7  sacrifice 
to  "  hairy  ones  "  is  for  the  future  prohibited. 

Similarly  in  Psalm  106:37  shedim,  which,  as  al- 
ready pointed  out,  were  Assyrian  deities,  is  clearly  used 
for  demons.  In  the  Mishna  and  Talmud  shed  has  come 
to  designate  demons  in  general.  It  thus  appears  that 
one  class  of  demons  In  whom  Jews  believed  were  orig- 
inally heathen  gods.  In  accordance  with  this  view  Paul 
declared:  "  The  things  which  the  Gentiles  sacrifice,  they 
sacrifice  to  demons,  and  not  to  God,"  (I  Cor.  10:  20). 

In  Isaiah  34:  14  Llllth  (RV,  "night  monster")  is 
mentioned  In  connection  with  "  hairy  ones."  Some  have 
supposed  that  her  name  is  derived  from  the  Hebrew 
word  for  night,  and  that  she  was  the  spook  of  darkness. 
Another  possibility  Is  that  her  name  is  the  survival  of 
the  Sumerian  lil,  "  spirit,"  and  that  she  too  Is  of  for- 
eign origin.  Be  this  as  it  may,  Lilith  played  a  most 
important  part  in  Jewish  post-Biblical  thought.  She 
was  supposed  to  be  especially  harmful  to  pregnant 
women  and  little  children,  and  many  homes  contained 
spells  against  her.^ 

Another  great  demon  or  dragon  which  in  this  period 

1  See  W.  R.  Smith's  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2nd  ed.,  London,   1894, 
p.  120  f. 

2  Cf.  J.  A.  Montgomery,  Aramaic  Incantation  Texts  from  Nippur, 
Philadelphia,   1913,  pp.  75-79- 


ANGELS  AND  DEMONS  1 85 

assumed  large  proportions  In  Jewish  thought  was  Ra- 
hab.  She  was  none  other  than  the  Babylonian  prim- 
itive sea  dragon,  TIamat.  In  Babylonian  tradition  she 
had  opposed  the  gods;  and  Marduk  had  conquered  her 
and  her  helpers,  had  cut  her  In  two,  making  the  heavens 
of  one  part  and  the  earth  of  the  other.  Hebrew  poets 
took  over  these  traditions,  putting  Yahweh  In  the  place 
of  Marduk.  Thus  the  Second  Isaiah  asks:  "Art  not 
thou  he  who  hewed  Rahab  In  pieces,  who  pierced 
through  the  dragon?  "  (Isa.  51:9).  Job,  In  speaking 
of  the  might  of  Yahweh  says :  "  The  helpers  of  Rahab 
do  stoop  under  him;  how  much  less  shall  I  answer 
him?"  (Job  9:13);  and  again:  "He  quelleth  the 
sea  with  his  power,  by  his  understanding  he  smiteth 
through  Rahab;  the  bars  of  heaven  fear  him,"  ^  (Job 
26:12,  13).  Similarly  the  author  of  Psalm  89:10 
sang:  "  Thou  hast  broken  Rahab  In  pieces  as  one  that 
Is  slain;  thou  hast  scattered  thine  enemies  with  the 
arm  of  thy  strength." 

Another  dragon  of  Babylonian  origin  was  Leviathan. 
In  Job  3  :  8  he  was  a  monster  capable  of  darkening  the 
day,  while  In  Psalm  74:  14  we  read:  "  Thou  breakest 
the  heads  of  Leviathan  in  pieces."  As  verses  16  and 
17  go  on  to  speak  of  the  creation  of  the  sun,  the  fixing  of 
earth's  bounds  and  the  making  of  summer  and  winter. 
It  Is  clear  that  this  is  also  an  allusion  to  the  Babylonian 
creation  epic.     As  Leviathan  Is  masculine  It  Is  prob- 

1  The   reasons  for  this   rendering  are  given  in  Barton's  Commentary 
on  Job  in  the  Bible  for  Home  and  School,  p.  219. 


1 86  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

able  that  he  Is  either  KIngu,  Talmat's  Babylonian  con- 
sort, under  a  new  name,  or  a  masculinized  form  of  Tla- 
mat  herself. 

While  so  many  Jewish  demons  of  this  period  are  of 
foreign  origin  there  are  two  that  are  purely  native. 
One  of  these  was  Azazel,  a  wilderness  demon,  who 
was  appeased  on  the  day  of  atonement  by  having  a  goat 
driven  out  Into  the  wilderness  where  Azazel  could  catch 
him.  In  the  canonical  literature  Azazel  Is  mentioned 
only  In  Leviticus  i6  In  connection  with  the  ritual  of  the 
"  scapegoat," —  the  term  by  which  the  Authorized  Ver- 
sion of  the  Bible  concealed  Azazel's  existence.  It  Is 
clear  that  the  part  of  the  ritual  of  this  chapter  that  has 
to  do  with  the  sending  out  of  this  goat  Into  the  wilder- 
ness Is  very  old.  It  Is  a  survival  from  early  times, 
when  Israel  felt  more  secure  after  the  demon  of  the 
wastes, — demons  that  were  supposed  to  be  hostile  be- 
cause their  habitat  was  Inhospitable, —  had  been  pro- 
pitiated. 

In  the  canonical  books  later  than  Zecharlah,  Satan, 
the  second  native  Hebrew  demon,  is  mentioned  but  once. 
This  Is  In  I  Chron.  21:1,  where  the  Chronicler  Is  retell- 
ing the  story  of  David's  census.  The  author  of  II 
Samuel  24  had  said  that  Yahweh  prompted  David  to 
number  Israel;  the  Chronicler  says  It  was  Satan.  As 
the  Chronicler  was  writing  somewhere  between  300  and 
200  B.c.^  It  appears  that  by  this  time  Satan  was  recog- 
nized In  certain  Jewish  circles  as  the  great  adversary 
of  Israel, —  the  author  of  evil.     Nevertheless  the  fact 


ANGELS  AND  DEMONS  1 87 

that  he  Is  mentioned  but  once  shows  that  other  demons 
occupied  a  more  prominent  place  In  popular  thought 
than  he. 

The  apocryphal  Jewish  literature  that  developed  be- 
tween 200  B.C.  and  100  A.D.  Is  a  fruitful  source  of  In- 
formation as  to  Jewish  conceptions  of  angels  and  de- 
mons. The  writers  of  this  literature  lived  partly  out- 
side of  Palestine  and  partly  In  the  Holy  Land.  They 
were  subjected  to  diverse  Influences  and  entertained  di- 
verse points  of  view.  Some,  like  the  author  of  the  Wis- 
dom of  Solomon,  were  philosophically  inclined;  others, 
like  the  author  of  I  Maccabees,  were  touched  with  in- 
cipient Sadduceeism.  Some  revelled  In  the  old  concep- 
tions and  regarded  angels  and  demons  as  real  and  nu- 
merous; others  made  spirits  and  demons  of  the  powers 
of  nature  and  of  the  tendencies  of  men;  still  others 
Ignore  this  class  of  beings  almost  entirely. 

The  author  of  the  Enoch  parables  (Enoch  37-71) 
speaks  of  the  spirit  of  the  sea,  of  hoar  frost,  of  hail,  of 
snow,  of  fog,  of  dew,  and  of  rain  (Enoch  60:  17-21). 
The  author  of  the  Book  of  Jubilees  speaks  of  the  spirits 
of  fire,  wind,  darkness,  hail,  snow,  frost,  thunder,  cold 
and  heat,  winter  and  summer  (Jubilees  2:1).  This  is 
either  a  survival  of  the  old  animism,  or  a  new  personi- 
fication. The  Book  of  Jubilees  also  calls  these  spirits 
angels. 

The  earliest  of  these  writings,  Enoch  1-36,  repre- 
sents a  definite  belief  in  angels,  as  does  also  Enoch 
37-70,    written    a    century    later.     These    writers    re- 


1 88  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

garded  angels  as  a  kind  of  supernatural  men.  Like 
men  they  are  said  to  possess  bodies  and  spirits  (Enoch 
67:  8)  ;  they  intermarried  with  human  women  (Enoch 
7:1), —  an  idea  that  is  clearly  borrowed  from  Gen. 
6:  2-4.  This  conception  was  shared  by  the  author  of 
the  Secrets  of  Enoch,  for  in  ch.  22  he  describes  in  great 
detail  how  Enoch  was  transformed  by  a  change  of  rai- 
ment and  a  glorification  of  his  body  into  an  angel. 
When  later  Enoch  was  permitted  to  return  to  earth  for 
thirty  days,  an  angel  chilled  his  face,  apparently  to  dim 
its  angelic  lustre  before  he  came  down  to  mingle 
with    ordinary   men    (Secrets    of   Enoch   36:2;  37:1; 

38:1). 

As  in  the  Book  of  Daniel,  angels  are  said  in  these 
works  to  be  divided  into  ranks.  The  ranks  had  their 
leaders,  of  whom  Gabriel  was  one  (Secrets  of  Enoch 
21:3).  The  same  writer  (20:3)  represents  the  Lord 
as  sitting  on  his  throne,  and  at  ten  steps  remove  stand 
the  heavenly  angels  according  to  their  rank.  Four 
angels  were  called  "angels  of  the  throne"  (Enoch 
9:1;  40:2);  they  were  Michael,  Gabriel,  Uriel,  and 
Raphael,  though  in  two  passages  Penuel  is  substituted 
for  Uriel.  Both  the  conception  of  ranks  of  angels  and 
the  tendency  to  name  them  ^  may  possibly,  though  not 
necessarily,    have    been    borrowed    from    the    Persians. 

1  For  a  list  of  the  names  of  the  angels  of  this  period  see  the  writer's 
article,  "  The  Origin  of  the  Names  of  Angels  and  Demons  in  the  Extra- 
Canonical  Apocalyptic  Literature  to  loo  a.  d.,"  in  the  Journal  of  Biblical 
Literature,  Vol.  XXXI,  pp.  156-159. 


ANGELS  AND  DEMONS  1 89 

The  author  of  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch  (59:  11)  de- 
clared angels  to  be  Innumerable. 

These  countless  hosts  were  supposed  to  do  all  that 
God  desired  to  have  done.  Through  their  agency  the 
whole  course  of  nature  was  carried  on.  Myriads  of 
angels  attended  the  sun  (Secrets  of  Enoch  14)  ;  they  reg- 
ulated the  courses  of  the  stars  (ch.  19)  ;  they  guarded 
the  habitations  of  the  snow  (ch.  5)  ;  they  kept  the  treas- 
uries of  oil  (ch.  6).  Angels  controlled  the  lightning, 
causing  a  pause  before  the  thunder  came  (Enoch  60:  13— 
15);  they  presided  over  the  treasuries  of  frost,  hail, 
dew,  and  rain  (60:  16-22). 

Another  function  of  angels  was  to  Instruct  the  apoc- 
alyptic seers.  Thus  Enoch  was  guided  about  the  uni- 
verse by  an  angel  who  revealed  Its  secrets  to  him  (Enoch 
40:  8,  etc.)  ;  an  angel  talked  to  Ezra  (II  Esdras  2:  44 
ff.)  ;  and  angels  according  to  the  Testaments  of  the 
Twelve  Patriarchs  communicated  with  most  of  the  sons 
of  Jacob.  Angels  were  also  supposed  to  be  God's  in- 
struments for  conveying  blessings  or  chastisements. 
The  angel  Raphael  came  to  heal  Tobit's  blindness  (Tob. 
5:1-6)  and.  In  the  sequel  conveyed  to  Tobit  many 
other  favours  and  blessings.  On  the  other  hand  they 
are  said  to  have  destroyed  the  Assyrians  In  the  time  of 
Sennacherib  (II  Mace.  11:6;  15:22).  Enoch  also 
saw  angels  administering  punishment  in  the  other  world 
(Secrets  of  Enoch  10:2  ff.).  When  Jerusalem  was 
destroyed  four  angels  were  said  to  have  stood  at  Its 
four    corners    with    lamps    and    accomplished    Its    ruin 


190  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

(Apocal.  of  Baruch  7:  i;  8:  i).  It  was  believed  that 
an  angel  would  be  appointed  as  an  avenger  on  the  day 
of  judgment  (Assumption  of  Moses  10:  2).  God  was, 
by  this  time,  thought  to  be  remote  and  exalted,  and 
those  who  believed  in  angels  at  all  made  them  very 
active  as  his  intermediaries,  to  carry  out  in  all  spheres  of 
life  his  will. 

While  the  beliefs  of  the  apocryphal  writers  with  ref- 
erence to  angels  represent  but  a  slight  advance  over 
those  of  the  canonical  books,  their  conceptions  concern- 
ing demons  are  much  more  developed.  These  beliefs 
present,  however,  considerable  variety.  Four  different 
types  of  thought  can  be  traced  in  them. 

(i).  The  authors  of  Enoch  1-36  and  of  the  Enoch 
Parables  (37-70)  present  the  most  complete  and  de- 
veloped demonology.  Both  were  intensely  Interested 
In  tracing  the  origin  of  evil,  and  both  found  It  In  de- 
moniacal activity.  But  in  tracing  the  origin  of  evil  they 
traced  the  genesis  of  the  demons  themselves,  for  In  their 
view  the  demons  were  developed  out  of  the  angels  or 
"  sons  of  the  gods  "  mentioned  in  Genesis  6:  2-4.  It 
is  assumed  that  these  beings  were  really  angels,  who 
rebelled  against  God  in  their  heavenly  estate,  and  who 
came  down  to  earth  endowed  with  a  supernatural  knowl- 
edge of  evil  arts.  They  then  married  human  wives  and 
taught  to  men  various  evil  practices.  According  to 
these  writers  this  angelic  host,  when  It  descended  from 
heaven,  landed  on  Mount  Hermon.  The  origin  of  sin 
is,  accordingly,  traced  by  these  thinkers,  not  to  the  Gar- 


ANGELS  AND  DEMONS  191 

den  of  Eden  and  the  serpent,  but  to  Mount  Hermon 
and  the  narrative  of  Genesis  6 :  2-4. 

In  the  view  of  these  apocalyptists  there  were  hosts 
of  these  angels  and  they  were  divided  into  different 
ranks,  being  governed  by  archangels,  who  became  arch 
fiends.  The  names  of  these  leaders  are  given  by  both 
writers  in  a  somewhat  corrupt  form.  The  original  list 
seems  to  have  been  Shemiaz,  Akrab,  Rahamiel  (or  Ra- 
miel),  Kokabel,  Tamiel,  Daniel,  Ezekiel,  Baraqel,  Asa- 
hel  (afterward  confused  with  Azazel),  Herem,  Hana- 
nel,  Shemapishael,  Satharel,  Turel,  and  Sahariel.^ 
These  names  are  all  appropriate  to  angels.  For  ex- 
ample, Shemiaz  meaning  "  my  name  is  strong,"  Ramiel, 
''  my  exalted  one  is  God,"  Kokabel,  "  star  of  God," 
Sahariel,  "  my  moon  is  God,"  ^  etc.  Shemiaz  taught 
conjurers  and  root-cutters  their  arts;  Herem  the  loosen- 
ing of  incantations;  Baraqel  and  Tamiel,  astrology; 
Kokabel,  signs;  Sahariel,  the  courses  of  the  moon.^ 
Azazel  is  said  to  have  taught  men  metal  work  (the 
making  of  swords,  etc.)  as  well  as  all  kinds  of  wicked- 
ness (Enoch  8  :  I  f.;  9:  6;  10:  8).  In  the  Enoch  Para- 
bles the  functions  are  distributed  somewhat  differently. 
Gadreel  (perhaps  a  corruption  of  Azazel)  is  said  to 
have  led  Eve  astray,  to  have  taught  men  the  instruments 
of  death  and  the  use  of  coats  of  mail  (Enoch  69:  6)  ; 

1  For   a   complete   list  of   demons   in   the   writings   of   this   period   see 
Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  XXXI,   162-166. 

2  For  these  and  other  etymologies  see  reference  in  preceding  note. 

3  Compare  Enoch  8:  3. 


192  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

Penemue,  or,  according  to  one  reading,  Tunlel,  taught 
men  to  discern  bitter  and  sweet,  wisdom  and  the  art  of 
writing  (69:  8  f.).  The  writer  of  the  Enoch  Parables 
represents  the  earth-dwellers  as  subject  to  Satan  (Enoch 
54:6),  although  Satan  is  being  punished  (Enoch 
53:  3).  The  name  of  the  angel  who  led  all  the  other 
angels  astray  and  so  started  the  whole  course  of  sin  is 
given  as  Yeqon  (Enoch  69:4).  In  one  manuscript  it 
is  Qeyon,  a  slightly  transformed  spelling  of  the  Hebrew 
name  of  Cain.  As  Yeqon  probably  arose  from  Qeyon 
by  a  process  well  known  to  Semitic  philologists,  It  ap- 
pears that  the  first  murderer  of  the  books  of  Genesis 
became  In  the  thought  of  this  writer  the  originator  of 
sin  in  heaven.  Thus  near  did  Cain  approach  to  apo- 
theosis; he  became  the  archfiend.  There  is  thus  pre- 
sented a  complete  theory  of  the  origin  of  evil  and  a 
complete  system  of  demonology,  but  In  this  system 
Satan,  though  present.  Is  not  particularly  important,  and 
Is  not  thought  to  be  the  agency  by  which  sin  came  into 
the  world. 

(2)  Another  point  of  view  is  represented  by  the 
Wisdom  of  Solomon  and  the  Secrets  of  Enoch.  To 
these  writers  Satan  was  the  archfiend, —  the  demon  who 
led  mankind  astray.  The  author  of  the  Wisdom  of 
Solomon  (ch.  2:24)  was  the  first  writer  to  identify 
Satan  with  the  serpent  of  the  Garden  of  Eden.  In  so 
doing  he  attributed  to  him  the  work  of  evil  which  the 
earlier  Enoch-writers  had  attributed  to  the  host  of 
fallen  angels.     This  view  was  adopted  by  the  author  of 


ANGELS  AND  DEMONS  1 93 

the  Secrets  of  Enoch  (ch.  31 :  6),  who,  although  much 
interested  In  angels,  has,  on  the  whole,  little  to  say  of 
demons.  Like  the  author  of  Wisdom,  he  simply  ac- 
cepted Satan  from  the  canonical  literature.  He  did  not 
believe  that  Satan's  rule  over  men  will  be  eternal,  for 
he  represents  Enoch  as  seeing  him  hurled  to  the  abyss 
(Secrets  of  Enoch  29:4;  31:4).  The  author  of  the 
Testament  of  Gad  (ch.  6:7)  also  regarded  Satan  as 
the  chief  of  the  demons. 

It  is  this  view  which  is  taught  In  the  Gospels  (Mark 
1 :  13,  etc.)  and  was  held  by  Paul  and  other  New  Testa- 
ment writers  and  which  prevailed  in  Christianity. 

(3)  The  book  of  Tobit  represents  a  third  type  of 
thought.  It  names  but  one  demon,  Asmodaeus,  who 
was  evidently  of  Persian  origin.  Asmodaeus  is  the 
Persian  Aeshma-daeva,  "  evil  deity  "  or  "  spirit."  The 
author  of  this  book  belonged  to  the  Persian  portion  of 
the  dispersion  and  a  Persian  demon  appears  to  have 
supplanted  in  his  thought  the  native  Israelitlsh  agents 
of  evil. 

(4)  A  fourth  type  of  thought  is  represented  by  the 
Testament  of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs  and  the  Ascension 
of  Isaiah.  In  these  writings,  while  the  demonology  Is 
very  real  and  all-pervasive,  it  is  made  up  in  a  purely 
rational  way.  The  world  is  believed  to  be  pervaded  by 
evil  spirits,  but  these  are  simply  the  personification  of 
the  evil  propensities  of  man, —  jealousy,  lust,  pride, 
chicanery,  injustice,  rapacity,  etc.  Writers  who  re- 
garded their  demons  In  this  way  moved  In  a  different 


194 


THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 


realm  of  thought  than  those  who  gave  to  the  divine 
beings  of  Genesis  6 :  2-4  orthodox  Hebrew  names. 
Over  this  host  of  evil  propensities  Beliar  presided.^ 
He  takes  the  place  of  Shemiaz  and  Satan  in  the  other 
systems.  Beliar  is  a  corruption  of  Belial, —  which  had 
been  employed  in  Nahum  2 :  i  as  the  name  of  a  great 
evil  power.  In  earlier  historical  books  Belial  had  been 
used  to  designate  worthlessness,  as,  for  example,  In 
I  Samuel  25  :  25.  Perhaps  it  was  an  old  name  for 
Sheol,  but  this  is  uncertain. 

To  most  of  the  Jews  of  this  time  and  afterward  the 
world  was  full  of  supernatural  agencies,  but  the  devel- 
opment of  their  thought  during  the  centuries  after 
Christ  lies  beyond  the  scope  of  this  work. 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  A  Fuller  Study  of  the  Origin  and  Development  of  Angels 
and  Demons;  cf.  "Demons  and  Spirits"  (Hebrew)  in  Hast- 
ings' Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  594- 
601,  and  G.  A.  Barton,  "The  Origin  of  the  Names  of  Angels 
and  Demons  in  the  Extra-Canonical  Apocalyptic  Literature,"  In 
Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  XXXI,  pp.  156-168. 

2.  The  Babylonian  Creation  Myth  and  Its  Influence  In  the 
Old  Testament;  cf.  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible, 
Philadelphia,  19 16,  Part  II,  chapter  I. 

3.  Persian  Influences  in  Hebrew  Angelology  and  Demonol- 
ogy;  cf.  J.  H.  Moulton,  Early  Zoroastrianism,  London,  1913, 
Lecture  IX. 

1  See,  e.  g..  Test  of  Reuben  2:1,  6:3;  Simeon  5:3;  Levi  19:1;  Issachar 
6:1,  7:1;  Dan.  1:7,  4:7,  5:10;  Naphtali  3:1;  Joseph  7:4;  Benjamin 
7:1,  2;  Ascension  of  Isaiah  1:8,  9,  etc. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    PSALMISTS 

Widespread  Influence  of  the  Psalter  —  Psalter  Re-edited  Many  Times  — 
Steps  by  which  it  was  Compiled  —  Psalm  44  —  Imprecatory 
Psalms  —  War  Songs  —  Religious  Classification  of  Psalms  —  Reli- 
gion of  the  Nature-Psalms  —  Consciousness  of  Righteousness  — 
Prayers  —  Emotional  Experience  —  Sacrifice  in  Psalms  50  and  51  — 
Psalm  139  and  Enlarged  View  of  God  —  Psalm  51  and  its  Spiritual 
Religion. 

In  the  great  Hebrew  prophets  we  find  the  most  spirit- 
ual message  of  the  Old  Testament;  in  the  Psalms  we 
find  the  tenderest  devotional  expression.  No  book  of 
praise  has  so  long  been  the  instrument  for  the  expres- 
sion of  the  best  devotion  of  such  a  wide  and  varied 
circle  of  the  most  civilized  men.  "  St.  Chrysostom  flee- 
ing into  exile;  Martin  Luther  going  to  meet  all  possible 
devils  at  Worms;  George  Wishart  facing  the  plague  at 
Dundee;  Wickliffe  on  his  sick  bed,  surrounded  by  his 
enemies;  John  Bunyan  in  Bedford  jail;  William  Wilber- 
force  in  a  crisis  when  all  his  most  strenuous  efforts 
seemed  in  vain,  and  his  noble  plans  were  threatened 
with  ruin, —  all  stayed  their  hearts  and  renewed  their 
courage  with  verses  from  the  Psalms.  The  Huguenots 
at  Dieppe  marched  to  victory  chanting  the  sixty-eighth 
psalm;  and  the  same  stately  war-song  sounded  over  the 
field  of  Dunbar.     It  was  a  psalm  that  Alice  Benden 

195 


196  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

sung  In  the  darkness  of  her  Canterbury  dungeon;  and 
the  lips  of  the  Roman  Paulla,  faintly  moving  in  death, 
breathed  their  last  sigh  in  the  words  of  a  psalm.  The 
motto  of  England's  proudest  university  is  a  verse  from 
the  psalms;  and  a  sentence  from  the  same  book  Is  writ- 
ten above  the  loneliest. grave  on  earth,  among  the  snows 
of  the  arctic  circle.  It  was  with  the  fifth  verse  of  the 
thirty-first  psalm  that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  commended 
his  soul  to  God;  and  with  the  same  words  St.  Stephen, 
St.  Polycarp,  St.  Basil,  St.  Bernard,  St.  Louis,  Huss, 
Columbus,  Luther,  Melancthon  —  yea,  and  many  more 
saints  of  whom  no  man  knoweth  —  have  bid  farewell 
to  earth  and  their  welcome  to  heaven."  ^ 

As  pointed  out  in  the  last  chapter,  this  psalter  which 
has  been  so  widely  employed,  came  into  existence  as  the 
hymn  book  of  the  second  temple.  It  had  a  gradual 
growth,  somewhat  analogous  to  that  of  the  Moody  and 
Sankey  hymn  books.  This  growth  can  be  traced  in  the 
titles  which  are  still  prefixed  to  many  of  the  psalms. 
The  nucleus  of  this  growth  was  psalms  3-41,  or  the 
first  of  the  books  into  which  the  psalter  is  at  present 
divided,  minus  psalms  i  and  2  which  were  afterward 
prefixed.  For  some  reason,  which  we  cannot  now  dis- 
cover, this  first  book  was  called  "  The  Psalms  of 
David."  Perhaps  it  was  so  named  because  of  his  fame 
as  a  musician  —  a  fame  which  brought  him  to  the  court 
of  King  Saul  (I  Sam.  16:  16  f.),  and  which  had  lost 
nothing  in  the  time  of  the  prophet  Amos  (Amos  6:5). 

1  See  Henry  Van  Dyke,  The  Story  of  the  Psalms,  New  York,  1887,  p.  11. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE   PSALMISTS  1 97 

If  actual  compositions  of  David  were   included  In  It, 
they  cannot  now  be  discovered. 

It  is  probable,  as  will  be  shown  below,  that  pre-exilic 
compositions  were  included  in  the  psalter,  but  these  were 
certainly  re-edited  so  that  they  would  accord  with  those 
religious  ideals  for  which  the  recently  adopted  priestly 
law  stood.  We  have  already  noted  how  these  Ideals 
led  to  the  composition  of  the  books  of  Chronicles,  In 
order  to  supplant  the  books  of  Kings.  We  may  be  sure 
that  the  hymns,  intended  for  actual  use  In  the  worship 
of  the  temple,  would  also  not  be  permitted  to  express 
sentiments  which,  however  consonant  with  the  religious 
ideals  of  the  time  before  the  Deuteronomic  reform,  were 
utterly  alien  to  the  religious  ideals  of  Nehemlah  and  his 
friends. 

In  modern  times  people  will  sing  theology  far  more 
crude  than  that  which  they  will  tolerate  in  sermons,  but 
even  the  hymn  books  are  revised  from  time  to  time  In 
order  to  make  them  continuously  acceptable  vehicles  of 
devotional  expression,^  and  we  may  be  sure  that  the  sec- 
ond temple  did  not  Inaugurate  Its  ritual  by  singing  a 
pre-prophetic  theology. 

At  some  time  when  the  national  spirit  of  Israel  was 

1  A    seventeenth    century   hymn    book    is    said    to    have    contained    the 
following: 

"  Ye   monsters  of  the   briny  deep, 
Your   maker's   praises   spout, 
Up    from    the    deep    ye    codlings    peep. 
And   wag   your   tails   about! 

This  has  long  been  revised  out  of  our  hymn  books.  No  modern  con- 
gregation could  maintain  a  devotional  mood  while  singing  it. 


198  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

again  stirred,  perhaps  at  the  time  of  the  unsuccessful 
rebellion  about  350  B.  c.,^  books  2  and  3  of  the  psalter 
were  collected.  This  collection  included  psalms  42-83, 
to  which  psalms  84-89  were  afterward  added.  In 
order  to  make  the  hymn  book  which  contained  psalms 
42-83  the  editor  combined  three  previously  existing 
hymn  books,  and,  as  he  did  so,  he  left  clues  by  which 
we  can  trace  his  work.  These  hymn  books  had  been 
called  respectively,  "  Psalms  of  the  Sons  of  Korah," 
^'  Psalms  of  Asaph,"  and  "  The  Prayers  of  David,  the 
Son  of  Jesse."  Up  to  this  time  the  hymns  had  referred 
to  Israel's  God  as  Yahweh.  This  had  been  done  in 
book  I  (psalms  3-41 )  and  also  in  the  three  psalm  books 
which  were  now  combined.  The  editor  who  combined 
them  did  not  approve  of  this  and  changed  Yahweh 
everywhere  to  elohim,  i.e.,  to  "  God."  ^  In  course  of 
time  psalms  84-89  were  added  to  this  collection,  and 
the  man  who  added  them  permitted  the  divine  name 
Yahweh  to  remain  in  them.  After  the  lapse  of  consid- 
erable time  —  a  time  so  long  that  many  of  the  musical 
terms  used  in  the  first  three  books  of  the  psalter  had 
gone  out  of  fashion  —  books  iv  and  v  were  collected 
and  added  to  the  psalter.  This  was  probably  done  at 
the  time  of  the  great  revival  of  the  national  and  reli- 

1  See  above,  p.  144. 

2  He  did  this  with  such  zeal  that  he  sometimes  made  mistakes.  In 
Ps.  xlv,  a  non-religious  poem  written  on  the  marriage  of  some  king, 
vs.  6  read,  "  Thy  throne  shall  be  for  ever  and  ever."  As  *'  shall  be  " 
looks  in  Hebrew  a  little  like  "  Yahweh,"  the  editor  inserted  elohira  in 
its  place! 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE   PSALMISTS  1 99 

glous  spirit  which  attended  the  Maccabaean  struggle. 
These  books  were  in  part  made  up  of  previously  exist- 
ing collections,  as  psalms  120-134  show,  and  at  first 
formed  one  book  consisting  of  psalms  90-136.  To 
this  psalms  137-150  were  within  a  few  years  added,  for 
the  whole  seems  to  have  been  translated  into  Greek 
about  130  B.  c. 

At  the  time  of  the  Maccabaean  struggle  many  of  the 
psalms  which  had  long  been  in  the  psalter  were  revised, 
to  make  them  express  more  clearly  the  feelings  of  the 
time.  This  revision  is  especially  noticeable  in  psalms 
44,  74,  and  79.  In  the  case  of  psalms  74  and  79  the 
revision  took  the  form  of  an  extensive  retouching 
throughout  the  hymn;  in  the  case  of  psalm  44  another 
strophe  was  added  to  the  hymn. 

Psalm  44  instructively  illustrates  the  history  of  the 
psalter.^  Verses  1-8  contain  a  hymn  of  victory,  which 
breathes  the  exultation  and  the  confidence  of  a  nation 
whose  arms  are  triumphing.  This  is  strikingly  illus- 
trated in  vs.  5  f. : 

Through  thee  we  push  down  our  adversaries: 

Through  thy  name  we  tread  them  under  that  rise  up  against  us. 

Thou  savest  us  from  our  adversaries, 
And  puttest  them  to  shame  that  hate  us. 

This  must  have  been  written  when  Israel  had  armies 
that  were  winning  battles.     As   she   had  none   in   the 

1  See  American  Journal  of  Theology,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  740  f. 


200  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

early  post-exilic  days,  it  is  probable  that  a  bit  of  pre- 
exilic  triumphal  poetry  has  been  utilized  here  by  the 
post-exilic  psalm-book  makers. 

To  this  pre-exilic  poem,  which  forms  the  first  strophe 
of  the  psalm,  they  added  another  of  a  very  different 
character.      It  begins  at  vs.  9  : 

But  now  thou  hast  cast  us  off  and  brought  us  to  shame, 
Thou  goest  not  forth  with  our  hosts. 
Thou  makest  us  to  turn  back  from  the  adversary; 
And  they  that  hate  us  take  spoil  for  themselves. 

This  surely  is  a  wail  from  an  unsuccessful  rebellion, 
and  fits  well  the  time  about  350  B.  c.  when  Bagoses 
cruelly  treated  the  Jews.  The  second  strophe  of  the 
psalm  (vss.  9-16)  is  all  of  this  character.  This 
strophe  is  separated  from  the  first  one  by  the  musical 
term,  Selah,  which  indicated  that  an  instrumental  Inter- 
lude should  come  in  between  verses  8  and  9. 

The  last  strophe,  verses  17-26,  Is  of  still  a  different 
character.  It  reflects,  not  unsuccessful  rebellion,  but  re- 
ligious persecution, —  persecution,  too,  endured  by  a 
people  that  is  conscious  of  having  kept  God's  law. 

All  this  is  come  upon  us ; 

Yet  have  we  not  forgotten  thee, 

Nor  have  we  been  false  to  thy  covenant. 

Yea,  for  thy  sake  we  are  killed  all  the  day  long; 
We  are  accounted  as  sheep  for  the  slaughter. 

Such  religious  persecution  was  endured  only  in  the 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE  PSALMISTS  20I 

Maccabaean  time,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  this 
strophe  was  added  then. 

This  view  is  confirmed  by  the  omission  of  "  Selah  " 
after  verse  i6.  In  the  Maccabaean  time  such  musical 
notation  was  not  much  used. 

We  cannot  trace  so  clearly  the  history  of  the  psalter 
in  other  psalms,  but  we  may  be  sure  that  by  somewhat 
similar  processes  of  collecting,  re-editing,  and  adapta- 
tion our  psalter  was  brought  to  completion. 

This  post-exilic  Jewish  church  was  a  noble  body  of 
struggling  idealists,  and,  withal,  very  human.  Good 
and  evil  struggled  in  their  hearts,  and  there  was  great 
variety  of  opinion  among  them.  All  this  is  mirrored  in 
their  psalms,  and  this  is  one  cause  of  their  popularity. 
One  can  find  here  something  expressed  in  simple,  emo- 
tional phrase,  to  voice  almost  every  mood  of  the  soul. 

In  the  imprecatory  ^  psalms  even  unregenerate  hate 
finds  expression.  This  hate  one  can  understand,  even 
though  he  abhors  it,  as  in  the  sentiment: 

Let  his  days  be  few; 

Let  another  take  his  office. 

Let  his  children  be  fatherless, 

And  his  wife  a  widow. 

Let  his  children  be  vagabonds  and  beg; 

Let  them  be  thrust  from  their  desolate  places. 

Ps.  109:  8-10. 

Again  in  Ps.  137 : 

1  The  imprecatory  psalms  are:  109,  129,  137,  and  140.     The  following 
may  be  called  half  imprecatory,  viz.:  —  ^,  9,  10,  35,  79,  loi,  149. 


202  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

O  daughter  of  Babylon,  destined  to  destruction, 
Happy  is  he  who  shall  pay  thee 
The  dealing  thou  hast  dealt  to  us! 
Happy  he  who  shall  seize  and  dash 
Thy  babes  against  the  rock! 

In  such  passages  the  Psalter  touches  Its  lowest  depths. 
If  it  did  not  have  depths  as  well  as  heights  It  would  not 
have  been  so  useful  a  book  to  Imperfect  human  beings. 

Closely  allied  with  the  imprecatory  Psalms  are  the 
hymns  of  war,  of  which  we  may  take  Ps.  68  as  an  ex- 
ample. This  psalm  has  undergone  so  many  re-edltlngs 
that  It  Is  the  crux  of  Interpreters.  Probably  It  had  a 
pre-exlllc  nucleus,  was  treasured  by  some  early  collector 
In  the  hymn-book  called  "  The  Prayers  of  David,"  was 
edited  again  for  use  In  the  struggle  with  Bagoses,  when 
It  found  Its  present  position  In  the  Psalter,  and  was  per- 
haps retouched  in  Maccabaean  times.  It  thus  echoes 
the  trust  and  the  hates  of  many  wars, —  strains  that 
have  become  strangely  familiar  In  the  agony  of  the 
world  war  which  began  In  19 14. 

Such  war-songs  rose,  as  we  now  realize  so  well,  out 
of  a  narrow  patriotism,  that  made  men  feel  sure  that 
they  were  the  favourites  of  heaven,  and  that  God  hated 
their  enemies  as  much  as  they  did.  This  Intense  na- 
tional narrowness  runs  through  much  of  the  psalter,  and 
mars  Its  beauty.  So  great  a  psalmist  as  the  author  of 
Ps.  91,  whose  great  words: 

He  that  dwelleth  in  the  secret  place  of  the  Most  High 
Shall  abide  under  the  shadow  of  the  Almighty, 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE  PSALMISTS  203 

have  sustained  many  a  saint,  could  not  rise  above  it. 
So  long  as  he  is  safe  he  seems  careless  of  humanity. 
He  sings : 

A  thousand  shall  fall  at  thy  side, 
And  ten  thousand  at  thy  right  hand, 
But  it  shall  not  come  nigh  thee! 

Two  psalms,  as  noted  In  a  previous  chapter,  are  de- 
voted to  extolling  the  law;  ^  eight  contain  retrospects  of 
Israel's  history,^  retelling  the  story  to  create  a  devo- 
tional spirit;  seven  ^  are  nature  psalms,  whose  authors 
saw  in  the  processes  of  nature  a  revelation  of  the  power 
and  goodness  of  God.  No  modern  reader  can  peruse 
them  intelligently  without  catching  something  of  their 
worshipful  spirit.     Such  Is  the  case  In  Ps.  19: 

The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God ; 
And  the  firmament  showeth  his  handiwork. 

One  feels  It  also  In  Ps.  147 : 

He  giveth  snow  like  wool; 

He  scattereth  the  hoar-frost  like  ashes. 

He  casteth  forth  his  ice  like  morsels: 

Who  can  stand  before  his  cold? 

He  sendeth  out  his  word  and  melteth  them: 

He  causeth  his  wind  to  blow  and  the  waters  flow. 

1  These  are  19:7-14,  and  119. 

2  They  are  77,  78,  83,  105,  106,  114,  135,  and  136. 

3  These  are  8,  19:1-6,  29,  104,  107,  139,  147,  148.  In  this  classifica- 
tion a  psalm  has  to  be  placed  sometimes  in  two  classes  as  its  author 
either  did  not  confine  himself  to  one  theme,  or  so  treated  his  theme  as 
to  bring  in  other  motives. 


204  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

The  authors  of  such  psalms  as  these  help  us  to  look 
through  nature  to  God.  One  feels  it  even  in  such  pas- 
sages as  Ps.  74:  13-15,  where  the  Psalmist  has  bor- 
rowed his  science  bodily  from  the  Babylonian  Creation 
Myth,  simply  putting  Yahweh  in  place  of  Marduk: 

Thou  didst  divide  the  sea  by  thy  strength: 

Thou  brakest  the  heads  of  the  sea-monsters  in  the  waters. 

Thou  brakest  the  heads  of  Leviathan  in  pieces; 

Thou  gavest   him   to   be   food   to   the   people   inhabiting   the 

wilderness. 
Thou  didst  cleave  fountain  and  flood: 
Thou  driedst  up  mighty  rivers. 
The  day  is  thine,  the  night  also  is  thine: 
Thou  hast  prepared  the  light  and  the  sun. 

The  same  power  is  felt  in : 

The  earth  is  the  Lord's  and  the  fulness  thereof  ; 
The  world  and  they  that  dwell  therein. 
For  he  hath  founded  it  upon  the  seas, 
And  established  it  upon  the  floods. 

Ps.  24:  I,  2. 

Seven  psalms  ^  reflect  a  peculiar  consciousness  of 
righteousness.  It  is  the  kind  of  spiritual  phenomenon 
that  might  easily  spring  up  in  the  minds  of  a  people  that 
was  earnestly  devoting  itself  to  the  observance  of  an 
external  law  by  which  they  could  measure  themselves. 

The  possession  of  an  objective  law,  which  one  could 
be  tolerably  sure  he  had  kept,  begot  in  some  psalmists  a 

1  These  are  17,  18,  26,  44  at  end,  loi,  131,  134. 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE  PSALMISTS  205 

consciousness  of  righteousness.  Thus  we  read  In  Ps. 
59:3: 

For,  lo,  they  he  in  wait  for  my  soul  ; 

The  mighty  gather  themselves  together  against  me: 

Not  for  my  transgression,  nor  for  my  sin,  O  Lord. 

This  attitude  reaches  Its  climax  In  Ps.  18 :  20-24. 

Yahweh   hath    rewarded   me   according   to   my   righteousness; 
According  to  the  cleanness  of  my  hands  hath  he  recompensed 

me. 
For  I  have  kept  the  ways  of  Yahweh, 
And  have  not  wickedly  departed  from  my  God. 
For  all  his  ordinances  were  before  me. 
And  I  put  not  away  his  statutes  from  me. 
I  was  also  perfect  with  him, 
And  I  kept  myself  from  mine  iniquity. 
Therefore   hath   Yahweh    recompensed    me   according   to   my 

righteousness. 
According  to  the  cleanness  of  my  hands  in  his  eyesight. 

Such  psalmists  were  the  predecessors  of  the  one  whose 
prayer  began:  "God  I  thank  thee  that  I  am  not  as 
other  men  are."  They  had  never,  Hke  Paul,  a  later 
Pharisee,  noticed  that  the  law  contained  a  command: 
"  Thou  shalt  not  covet,"  and  who  was  led  thereby  to 
discover  the  Impossibility  —  apart  from  a  change  of 
nature  —  of  controlling  desire. 

Thirty-four  psalms  are  prayers  for  help,^ —  prayers, 

1  These  are  3,  6,  7,  i2,  13,  22,  25,  35,  38,  39,  44  middle  part,  54,  55, 
56,  57,  58,  59,  60,  64,  69,  70,  71,  74,  80,  83,  86,  88,  94,  102,  120,  141, 
142,  143,  144- 


206  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

which  in  the  varying  needs  and  moods  of  modern  life 
the  Christian  often  finds  in  part  appropriate  to  his  own 
needs.  Forty-three  psalms  ^  are  of  a  reflective  or  moral- 
izing nature;  their  authors  grapple  with  practical  facts 
or  difficulties.  Their  efforts  call  forth  our  sympathies, 
and  their  decisions  instruct  us.  Twenty-eight  psalms 
contain  expressions  of  trust  that  make  them  admirable 
vehicles  of  personal  devotion.  Of  this  number  special 
mention  must  be  made  of  Psalms  42,  43,  46  and  84.^ 

Some  of  the  compilers  of  psalms  were  interested  in 
one  aspect  of  devotion  and  some  in  others.  Thus  the 
compiler  of  the  Psalms  of  Asaph  found  a  strong  attrac- 
tion in  poems  that  discussed  a  problem.  He  included 
in  his  psalter  Ps.  50,  which  discusses  animal  sacrifice, 
and  Ps.  73,  which  discusses  the  inexplicable  problem 
of  evil.  The  first  of  these  problems,  though  an  acute 
one  for  his  age,  is  no  longer  a  problem  to  us,  but  the 
second  of  them  vexes  us  still. 

The  compiler  of  the  Psalms  of  the  Sons  of  Korah 
was  an  expert  in  devotional  literature.  He  had  sounded 
the  depths  of  emotional  experience,  and  has  brought  to- 
gether a  rare  anthology  of  psalms  for  life's  crises  and 
sorrows.  What  Christian  has  not  been  fain  to  use  his 
hymn: 

1  These  are  i,  2,  14,  15,  20,  21,  24,  33,  34,  36,  37,  41,  49,  50,  52,  53, 
60,  62,  65,  66,  68,  73,  76,  82,  88,  90,  92,  93,  97,  99,  100,  107,  108,  III,  112, 
115,   116,   118,  125,  127,  128,  133,  and   138. 

2  The  whole  list  is:  4,  16,  23,  27,  28,  30,  31,  32,  39,  40,  42,  43,  46,  56, 
57,  61,  62,  63,  67,  70,  84,  91,  121,  123,  124,  130,  140,  141. 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE  PSALMISTS  207 

As  the  hart  pants  for  brooks  of  water 
So  pants  my  soul  for  thee,  O  God  ? 

Have  we  not  often  encouraged  ourselves  with  his  re- 
frain : 

Why  art  thou  cast  down,  O  my  soul? 
Why  art  thou  disquieted  within  me? 
Hope  thou  in  God ;  for  I  shall  yet  praise  him 
For  the  help  of  his  countenance?  (cf.  Ps.  42). 

Many  another  than  the  hero  of  the  Reformation  has 
been  comforted  in  singing: 

God  is  our  refuge  and  strength, 

A  very  present  help  in  trouble. 

Therefore  will  we  not  fear,  though  the  earth  do  change. 

Though  the  mountains  be  carried  into  the  midst  of  the  seas; 

Though  the  waters  thereof  roar  and  be  troubled. 

Though  the  mountains  shake  with  their  swelling;  (Ps.  46). 

In  other  moods  the  words 

My  soul  longeth,  yea  even  fainteth 
For  the  courts  of  Yahweh, 
My  heart  and  my  flesh  cry  out 
Unto  the  living  God,  (Ps.  84). 

express  our  deepest  longings  far  better  than  could  any 
words  of  our  own. 

There  are  three  psalms  about  the  thought  of  whose 
authors  a  few  words  should  be  said.  These  are  psalms 
50,  139,  and  51.     Attention  was  called  in  the  first  chap- 


2o8  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

ter  to  the  fact  that  animal  sacrifice  was  inherited  by  the 
Hebrews  from  their  heathen  Semitic  ancestors.  No 
doubt  it,  like  all  permanent  religious  institutions,  had, 
in  the  lapse  of  time,  been  given  different  explanations. 
Prophets  had  declared  ^  that  sacrifice  formed  no  part 
of  the  original  religion  of  Yahweh,  but  it  was  too  firmly 
established  as  an  institution  to  be  lightly  thrown  aside. 
The  prophets  themselves,  as  noted  in  a  former  chapter, 
had  been  compelled  in  the  Deuteronomic  legislation  to 
make  terms  with  it.  In  the  post-exilic  time  one  inter- 
pretation of  sacrifice  was  that  it  was  food  presented 
to  Yahweh.  He  did  not  eat  it  in  a  human  way,  but  took 
it  in  a  sublimated  form  by  smelling  its  odour,  and  yet 
he  took  it.  Malachi  had  declared  it  robbery  to  with- 
hold it  from  him. 

With  this  view  the  authors  of  psalms  50  and  51 
dared  to  take  issue,  though  they  approached  the  matter 
in  different  ways.  The  writer  of  psalm  50  treats  this 
view  of  sacrifice  with  sarcasm.     He  says: 

Hear,  my  people,  and  I  will  speak, 

0  Israel,  and  I  will  bear  witness  against  thee ; 
God,  thy  God,  am  I. 

Not  for  thy  sacrifices  will  I  rebuke  thee. 

For  thy  burnt  offerings  are  before  me  continually. 

1  will  not  take  from  thy  house  a  bullock, 
Nor  from  thy  folds  he-goats ; 

For  every  beast  of  the  forest  is  mine, 

The  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills. 

I  know  every  bird  of  the  mountains, 

1  See  Amos  5  :  21-25. 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE  PSALMISTS  209 

And  the  creatures  of  the  field  are  with  me. 

If  I  were  hungry,  I  would  not  tell  thee, 

For  the  world  and  its  fulness  are  mine. 

Will  I  eat  the  flesh  of  bulls? 

Or  drink  the  blood  of  goats? 

Sacrifice  to  God  thanksgiving. 

And  pay  to  the  Most  High  thy  vows; 

Then  call  upon  me  in  the  day  of  trouble, 

And  I  will  deliver  thee,  and  thou  shalt  give  me  glory. 

The  sacrificer  of  thanksgiving  shall  honor  me, 

And  to  him  who  directs  his  way 

I  will  disclose  the  salvation  of  God.      (Ps.  50:  6-15,  23.) 

This  psalmist  represents  God  as  repudiating  with  scorn 
the  Idea  that  he  needs  the  food  of  animal  sacrifices,  and 
declares  unequivocally  that  all  the  sacrifice  which  God 
wishes  Is  that  men  should  be  thankful  and  should  direct 
their  ways  aright.  The  author  of  psalm  51  held  a  sim- 
ilar view.     He  says: 

Thou  desirest  not  sacrifice,  else  I  would  give  it ; 

In  burnt  offerings  thou  delightest  not. 

The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken  spirit ; — 

A  heart  broken  and  contrite, 

O  God,  thou  wilt  not  despise.      (Ps.  51 :  16,  17.) 

This  psalmist  agrees  with  the  other  as  to  the  uselessness 
of  animal  sacrifices,  but  holds  that  God  requires  some- 
thing more  than  mere  thanksgiving  and  outward  moral- 
ity; he  requires  a  penitent  heart.  This  view  Is  In  accord 
with  this  psalmist's  perception  of  the  Inward  nature  of 
religion,  of  which  more  will  be  said  below. 


2IO  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

The  views  of  these  psalmists  did  not,  however,  prevail. 
An  editor  who  thought  the  expression  of  Ps.  51 :  16,  17 
too  strong,  added  two  verses  to  the  psalm  (i.  e.  51 :  18, 
19),  which  make  the  psalm  Itself  give  the  Impres- 
sion that  the  language  was  only  justified  because  It  was 
written  during  the  exile,  when  Jerusalem  was  In  ruins ! 
Thus  animal  sacrifice  was  continued.  Both  Hebrew 
and  heathen  altars  reeked  with  blood  down  to  the  de- 
struction of  the  temple.  Post-exilic  Judaism  had.  In 
the  synagogue,  developed  a  worship  without  sacrifice, 
but  Judaism  did  not  In  theory  justify  such  worship.  It 
was  only  a  make-shift.  They  believed  the  worship  of 
sacrifice  in  the  temple  was  far  better.  It  was  the  true 
and  genuine  worship.  So  far  as  western  Asia  Is  con- 
cerned it  was  left  for  early  Christianity  to  Inaugurate 
a  religion  entirely  without  such  sacrifice,  and  then  the 
author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  was  compelled 
to  interpret  the  death  of  Christ  In  sacrificial  terms  (Heb. 
7-10)  In  order  to  explain  why  the  new  religion  could 
discard  this  world-old  custom. 

Perhaps  no  psalm  indicates  more  clearly  certain  as- 
pects of  the  progress  of  religious  thought  than  the  one 
hundred  and  thirty-ninth.  It  stands  In  the  last  appen- 
dix added  to  the  psalter,  and  its  many  quotations  from 
previously  existing  psalms,  as  well  as  the  form  of  Its 
language,  prove  It  to  be  among  the  latest  In  the  psalter. 
Probably  it  was  written  In  the  Maccabaean  or  early 
Hasmonean  time,  i.  e.,  after  the  middle  of  the  second 
century  B.  c.     It  is  remarkable  for  the  consciousness 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE  PSALMISTS  211 

which  Its  author  manifests  that  God's  presence  pervades 
the  world.  It  is  true  that  his  world  was  not  as  large 
as  ours.  He  knew  of  nothing  further  east  than  India, 
or  further  west  than  the  straits  of  Gibraltar.  The 
Scythians  of  southern  Russia  were  the  most  northerly 
people  known  to  him,  and  probably  he  knew  of  no 
country  further  south  than  the  SomalUand  of  today. 
Four  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  him  some  Phoeni- 
cians, under  the  patronage  of  an  Egyptian  king  had  cir- 
cumnavigated Africa,^  but  their  tales  were  received 
with  Incredulity,  and  it  is  doubtful  If  this  Jew  ever  heard 
of  them.  To  him  and  the  men  of  his  time  the  sky  was 
an  overarching  dome  Into  which  the  stars  were  fixed 
as  lights.  Sheol  was  a  dark  cavern  underneath  the 
earth.  Nevertheless  this  was  a  much  larger  world  than 
that  known  to  the  men  of  early  Israel,  and  this  writer 
sets  the  men  of  our  time  a  needed  example  In  that  his 
religious  faith  had  kept  pace  with  the  enlargement  of 
knowledge.     God  fills  his  world. 

0  Yahweh,  thou  hast  searched  me  and  known  me, 
Thou  knowest  my  sitting  down  and  my  rising  up, 
Thou  percelvest  my  thought  from  afar. 

Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  spirit? 
Whither  shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence? 
If  I  go  up  to  heaven,  there  thou  art. 
If  I  make  my  bed  in  Sheol,  lo  thou  art  there. 
If  I  take  the  wings  of  the  dawn, 

1  See  Herodotus,  IV,  42. 


212  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

And  dwell  in  the  westernmost  sea, 

There  also  would  thy  hand  lead  me, 

And  thy  right  hand  hold  me. 

If  I  say,  Only  let  darkness  cover  me, 

Then  the  night  shall  be  light  about  me. 

Even  darkness  hides  not  from  thee, 

But  night  like  day  gives  light ; 

Darkness  is  as  light. 

For  thou  hast  formed  my  reins. 

Thou  hast  woven  me  in  the  womb  of  my  mother. 

To  appreciate  what  an  advance  of  thought  this  rep- 
resents, we  need  but  glance  at  the  thought  of  David  or 
Elisha.  David  thought  that  Yahweh  was  the  God  of 
Palestine.  He  was  one  among  many  gods.  One 
served  him  as  a  matter  of  course  In  Palestine,  but  If 
one  were  driven  from  Yahweh's  soil  and  compelled  to 
take  refuge  In  another  land,  one  as  naturally  then  served 
the  god  of  that  land.  It  was  for  this  reason  that  David 
said  to  Saul,  "  They  have  driven  me  out  this  day  from 
abiding  In  the  Inheritance  of  Yahweh,  saying,  Go  serve 
other  gods  "  (I  Sam.  26:  19).  Similarly  Naaman,  the 
Syrian,  who  wished  to  worship  Yahweh  In  Damascus 
(II  Kings  5:  17  f.),  asked  Elisha  for  two  mule-loads 
of  earth  to  take  to  Damascus,  that  he  might  make  a  lit- 
tle Palestine  there,  and  so  worship  Yahweh  on  Yahweh's 
soil.  Elisha  evidently  shared  the  Idea  that  the  power 
of  Yahweh  was  confined  to  his  own  land,  and  granted 
the  request.  The  author  of  this  psalm  had  left  all  such 
conceptions  far  behind.  The  all-seeing  eye  of  Yahweh 
and  his  creative   power  fills.   In   his  belief,   the  whole 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE   PSALMISTS  213 

world.  The  psalmist  not  only  held  this  as  an  article 
of  Intellectual  belief,  but  he  so  assimilated  it  to  his 
religious  life  that  It  became  a  devotional  help  to  him. 
The  thought  of  an  omnipresent,  all-seeing  God  must, 
when  It  Is  fully  grasped,  either  fill  men  with  terror  or 
with  hope  —  terror,  if  the  heart  Is  out  of  harmony  with 
God;  hope,  If  It  Is  In  accord  with  the  divine  purpose. 
This  psalmist  was  of  the  last  mentioned  class.  He  ex- 
claims : 

How  precious  are  thy  thoughts  unto  me,  O  God ! 

I  awake,  and  am  still  with  thee. 

Search  me,  O  God,  and  know  my  heart; 

Try  me,  and  know  my  thoughts; 

And  see  if  there  is  any  idolatrous  way  in  me, 

And  lead  me  in  the  way  everlasting.      (Ps.  139:  17,  18,  23.) 

In  his  case  larger  knowledge  led  to  beter  piety.  It  was 
a  vigorous,  militant  piety,  I.  e.,  a  piety  read  to  fight  for 
the  will  of  God.  For  In  the  same  context  the  psalmist 
could  exclaim: 

With  perfect  hatred  do  I  hate  them,   (I.e.,  Yahweh's  foes); 
I  count  them  my  enemies.      (Ps.  139:  22.) 

He  so  Identified  himself  with  Yahweh  that  he  loved  what 
Yahweh  loved,  and  hated  what  Yahweh  hated. 

The  most  spiritual  conception  of  religion  in  the  whole 
psalter,  not  to  say  the  whole  Old  Testament,  is  ex- 
pressed In  the  fifty-first  psalm.     Its  author  alone  of  all 


214  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

Old  Testament  writers  saw  that  sin  is  of  the  heart,  and 
that  it  is  the  insuperable  barrier  to  communion  with 
God. 

For  my  transgression  I  know, 

And  my  sin  is  continually  before  me. 

Lo,  thou  desirest  truth  in  the  inward  parts, 

And  in  the  hidden  part  thou  wilt  make  me  to  know  wisdom. 

Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  O  God, 

And  renew  a  right  spirit  within  me. 

Cast  me  not  away  from  thy  presence, 

And  take  not  thy  holy  spirit  from  me. 

Restore  unto  me  the  joy  of  thy  salvation, 

And  with  a  free  spirit  uphold  me.      (Ps.  51  •  3,  7»  10-12.) 

In  no  other  pre-Christian  writer  is  there  so  keen  a 
consciousness  of  sin,  or  so  real  an  appreciation  of  the 
fact  that  the  essence  of  wrong  doing  is  in  the  attitude  of 
the  inner  nature  to  God.  Of  all  Hebrew  writers  this 
one  alone  anticipates  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  that  God 
requires  not  only  a  moral  outward  life,  but  a  clean 
heart.  To  him  as  to  the  Master  both  morality  and  the 
joy  of  living  flow  from  a  heart  cleansed  by  God  and 
indwelt  by  the  Spirit.  The  psalmist,  too,  when  he 
sings : 

The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken  spirit;  — 
A  heart  broken  and  contrite, 
O  God,  thou  wilt  not  despise, 

anticipates  in  principle  the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  PSALMISTS  21 5 

The  Father  needs  no  propitiation  except  the  penitence 
of  the  son  for  whom  he  has  watched  so  long.  The  Old 
Testament  contains  no  more  spiritual  view  of  religion 
than  this.     Here  is  the  finest  flower  of  its  piety. 


TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  The  Compilation  of  the  Psalter;  cf.  J.  P.  Peters  "  Hebrew 
Psalmody,"  in  the  Harvard  Theological  Review,  IX,  36-55 
(Jan.  1916),  comparing  his  "Development  of  the  Psalter"  in 
the  New  JVorld,  III,  (1893),  PP-  285-312.  Also  G.  A.  Barton, 
"  The  Bearing  of  the  Composition  of  the  Psalter  on  the  Date  of 
the  Forty-fourth  Psalm,"  in  the  American  Jourtial  of  Theology, 

HI  (1899),  pp.  740-746. 

2.  The  Religious  Point  of  View  of  the  Psalms  of  the  Sons 
of  Korah,  using  the  Psalter  itself. 

3.  The  Religious  Point  of  View  of  the  Psalms  of  Asaph,  using 
the  Psalter  itself. 

4.  Study  fully  the  References  in  the  Psalter  to  the  Law. 

5.  Compare  the  Psalter  with  other  ancient  hymns;  cf.  S.  Lang- 
don,  Sumertan  and  Babylonian  Psalms,  Paris,  1909,  the  transla- 
tions in  J.  H.  Breasted's  Development  of  Religion  and  Thought 
in  Ancient  Egypt,  New  York,  1912,  or  G.  A.  Barton,  Archae- 
ology and  the  Bible,  Philadelphia,  1917,  Part  II,  chapter  xxi;  F. 
Max  Muller,  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vols.  32,  42,  46,  and  47. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE    RELIGION    OF   THE    SAGES 

The  Sages  —  Hebrew  Wisdom  —  The  Book  of  Job  —  Its  Prologue  — 
The  Debate  —  Interpolations  —  Author  of  Job  a  Critic  of  Current 
Theology  —  Taught  a  Deeper  View  of  God  —  Conviction  of  a  Fu- 
ture Life  —  Healing  Power  of  Communion  with  God  Discovered 
through  Suffering  —  The  Function  and  Limitation  of  Reason  in 
Religion  —  Expediency  of  Religion  taught  in  Proverbs  —  Author  of 
Ecclesiastes  an  Earnest  Sceptic  —  Proverbs  of  Ben  Sira  —  In  Wisdom 
of  Solomon  Wisdom  a  Revelation  of  God  —  His  Theory  of  Religion 
Attractive  —  Some  of  his  Thoughts  in  New  Testament. 

Apart  from  the  prophets  and  priests  there  was  In 
ancient  Israel  a  class  of  sages,  who,  in  the  time  after 
the  exile,  created  a  body  of  literature,  known  as  the 
*'  wisdom  "  books.  This  name  is  given  to  their  writ- 
ings because  they  gave  to  wisdom  so  prominent  a  place. 
This  wisdom  literature  is  akin  in  its  general  spirit  to 
similar  classes  of  literature  in  Egypt  and  Babylonia,^ 
though  it  always  reflects  the  point  of  view  of  Hebrew 
monotheism. 

Wisdom  to  the  Hebrews  did  not  mean,  as  it  did  to  the 
Greeks,  knowledge  or  philosophy;  it  was  rather  an  ex- 
alted kind  of  common  sense  or  insight  into  human  na- 

1  For  examples  of  Egyptian  wisdom  see  the  Wisdom  of  Ptah-hotep  and 
The  Admonitions  of  an  Egyptian  Sage.  The  former,  too  difficult  for 
connected  translation,  is  described  in  Breasted's  Development  of  Reli- 
gion and  Thought  in  Ancient  Egypt,  New  York,  1912,  p.  226  f. ;  the 
latter  was  published  and  translated  by  Alan  Gardiner,  Leipsig,  1908.  A 
sample  of  Babylonian  wisdom  may  be  found  in  the  experiences  of  Tabi- 
utul-Ellil;   see   G.  A.   Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  Philadelphia, 

i9i7»  PP-  392-395- 

216 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE  SAGES  217 

ture.  Wise  people  of  this  sort  are  mentioned  early  in 
the  history  of  Israel.  Joab  brought  a  "  wise  woman  of 
Tekoah  "  to  Jerusalem  to  reconcile  David  to  his  son 
Absalom,  (II  Sam.  14:2  f.).  Her  wisdom  consisted 
in  ability  skilfully  to  play  upon  the  thoughts  of  the 
king  and  justify  to  his  mind  what  at  heart  he  wished 
to  do. 

Of  all  Israel's  wise  people  Solomon  was  the  most 
famous.  His  wisdom  was  also  of  this  practical  sort. 
The  example  of  it  given  in  I  Kings  3  :  16-28  shows  that 
it  consisted  of  Insight  into  character  and  a  knowledge 
of  the  motives  which  control  human  conduct.  So  great 
was  Solomon's  practical,  common-sense  insight  and  such 
was  his  exalted  position  that  he  became  In  later  tradi- 
tion the  wise  man  par  excellence  of  Israel,  so  that  writ- 
ings composed  long  after  his  time  were  ascribed  to  him, 
just  as  psalms,  composed  long  after  David's  time,  were 
called  David's.  It  may  have  been  the  Intention  to  im- 
ply In  the  case  of  the  Book  of  Proverbs  that  this  was 
the  kind  of  wisdom  for  which  Solomon  was  famous;  In 
the  case  of  Eccleslastes  the  ascription  to  Solomon  was 
probably  owing  to  a  mistaken  interpretation  of  a  sin- 
gle phrase  in  the  book.^ 

The  earliest  and  greatest  of  these  wisdom  writers 
was  the  author  of  the  Book  of  Job,  who  lived  and  wrote 
about  400  B.  c-     His  poem  Is  one  of  the  world's  mas- 

1  See   Barton,   Ecdesiastes,   in   the   International   Commentary,   pp.    58 
and  78. 

2  See  Barton,  Commentary  on  Job,  p.  39  f. 


21 8  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

terpieces.  It  ranks  with  the  productions  of  Greek,  Ital- 
ian, German  or  English  poets.  His  theme  Is  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  righteous.  For  the  central  figure  of  his 
poem  he  chose  the  hero  of  an  old  story,  who,  according 
to  the  tale,  had  proven  most  patient  and  exemplary 
under  the  great  misfortunes  which  had  befallen  him. 
Removing  the  middle  part  of  the  tale,  all  of  which  had 
probably  been  handed  down  In  prose,  he  Inserted  his 
poem  in  the  place  of  It,  thus  permitting  the  old  prologue 
and  epilogue  to  stand  as  the  introduction  and  conclu- 
sion of  his  Immortal  work.^ 

According  to  the  prologue  God  permitted  misfor- 
tunes and  suffering  to  come  upon  Job,  in  order  to  con- 
vert Satan  from  the  error  of  his  ways.  Satan  was  not 
yet  the  malignant  character  which  he  became  in  later 
thought;  he  was  only  a  sceptical  or  disgruntled  angel, 
whom  God  had  hopes  of  reclaiming  through  Job's  con- 
stancy. While  the  prologue  thus  lets  the  reader  into 
the  secret  of  Job's  pain,  to  Job  himself  all  this  was 
unknown.  He  had  been  an  upright  moral  man  accord- 
ing to  the  standards  of  his  time.  He  had,  in  common 
with  the  men  of  his  generation,  held  that  God  rewards 
the  righteous  with  earthly  prosperity  and  the  wicked 
with  earthly  misfortunes,  but,  conscious  that  he  had 
not  sinned,  his  poignant  suffering  shattered  his  faith  In 
this  comfortable  theology,  and  led  him  to  doubt  the 
goodness  of  God.  His  three  friends,  who  held  still 
the   theology  which  Job   once   held,    came   to   condole 

1  Ibid.,  p.  I  f. 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE  SAGES  219 

with  him,  but,  overcome  by  his  misfortunes,  they  sat 
long  In  silence. 

It  is  here  that  the  poet  begins  his  work.  He  puts 
Into  the  mouth  of  Job  a  wail  of  despair  which  Is  also 
an  arraignment  of  God.  This  shocked  the  three 
friends,  and  they  began  in  turn  to  try  to  show  to  Job 
the  error  of  his  ways.  They  were  sure  that  he  must 
have  sinned,  even  If  he  Is  unconscious  of  it,  for,  ac- 
cording to  their  theory,  nothing  else  could  explain  why 
God  had  sent  such  punishment  upon  him.  Job  ener- 
getically repudiated  their  Insinuations,  and  so  the  de- 
bate waxed  warm. 

The  genius  of  the  poet  Is  strikingly  exhibited  In 
the  skilful  way  he  portrays  the  discussion.  He  has 
made  the  speeches  of  Job  reflect  the  varying  moods  of 
a  really  noble  man,  whose  nerves  are  unstrung  by  dis- 
ease and  whose  faith,  wrecked  by  misfortune,  is  slowly 
struggling  back  to  a  new  and  better  life.  The  inevi- 
table outbursts  of  Irritability  and  indignation,  the  in- 
tense feeling  of  God's  injustice,  the  sensitiveness  of  one 
nervously  unstrung  to  the  criticism  of  well-meaning  but 
tactless  friends,  and  the  deep  underlying  yearning  for 
God  which  comes  from  a  really  unconquerable  faith  in 
his  goodness  and  justice,  are  all  portrayed  with  masterly 
skill.  On  the  other  hand  the  friends  are  treated  with 
no  less  skill.  Eliphaz  begins  his  first  speech  In  the 
fourth  chapter  In  the  tenderest  and  most  tactful  man- 
ner. He  is  full  of  sympathy  for  his  friend's  misfor- 
tune, though  he  must  needs.  In  fidelity  to  his  theology, 


220  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

hint  at  an  underlying  sin  as  the  cause  of  suffering.  This 
tenderness,  as  the  debate  becomes  hot,  is,  in  the  most 
natural  way,  gradually  thrown  off,  until  the  friends 
boldly  charge  Job  with  the  commonest  sins. 

The  speeches  which  the  poet  put  into  the  mouth  of 
Job,  shocked  the  sensibilities  of  orthodox  Judaism.  The 
work  was  accordingly  interpolated  and  to  some  degree 
mutilated  in  order  to  make  it  more  acceptable  to  Jewish 
thought.  But  for  this  it  would  probably  never  have 
been  preserved  for  us.  Fortunately  most  of  the  inter- 
polations and  changes  can,  with  much  probability,  now 
be  discovered  and  rectified.^ 

The  author  of  Job  was  in  reality  a  great  critic  of 
the  theology  which  was  current  in  his  day,  but  he  was 
a  constructive  as  well  as  a  destructive  critic.  It  was 
necessary  for  him  to  show  how  inadequate  that  the- 
ology was  to  explain  the  actual  experiences  of  life,  but 
he  also,  in  portraying  how  a  soul  may  grow  under  the 
discipline  of  suffering,  presented  a  far  more  profound 
and  adequate  theology.  He  did  this  by  setting  forth, 
as  the  poem  advanced.  Job's  growing  faith  in  God,  in 
a  future  life,  and  in  the  healing  power  of  present  com- 
munion with  God. 

Owing  to  the  theory  of  the  religious  life  that  Job 

1  These  interpolations  consist  of  ch.  28,  the  praise  of  wisdom,  ch.  32- 
37,  the  Elihu  speeches,  which  were  added  by  two  hands,  and  ch,  40:  15- 
41 :  34,  the  description  of  behemoth  and  leviathan.  In  chapters  24,  27, 
and  30,  words  of  Bildad  and  Zophar  are  attributed  to  Job,  to  make  his 
utterances  seem  more  orthodox.  See  Barton,  Commentary  on  Job,  pp. 
19-37,  and  the  notes  on  the  chapters  mentioned. 


THE  RELIGION   OF   THE  SAGES  221 

had  held,  the  first  shock  of  his  suffering  destroyed  his 
faith  in  God's  goodness.  When  a  false  theology  is 
swept  away,  it  often  takes  for  the  moment  all  faith  with 
it.  Job,  as  the  poet  delineates  him,  passed  through 
this  experience.  He  bitterly  complains  in  7  :  12-21  that 
the  great  ''  Watcher  of  men  "  is  relentlessly  and  use- 
lessly torturing  him,  and  in  9:21,  22  he  declares  that 
God  "  destroys  the  perfect  and  the  wicked  "  alike.  All 
faith  in  God  as  a  good  and  just  Being  had  gone. 

But  later,  while  Job  was  reasserting  this  point  of 
view,  a  new  conviction  of  God's  justice  burst  involun- 
tarily from  his  lips. 

Behold  he  will  slay  me;  I  may  not  hope, 
But  my  ways  to  his  face  I  will  maintain. 
This  also  shall  be  my  salvation; 

For  a  godless  man  shall  not  come  before  him.      (Job  13:  15, 
16.) 

In  the  varying  moods  of  Job's  soul  this  new  conviction 
did  not  at  first  find  permanent  standing  room.  As  in 
other  men  it  had  to  struggle  for  the  mastery.  So  in 
ch.  16:  12-18  Job  could  again  make  a  bitter  complaint 
of  the  way  God  had  delivered  him  to  misfortune  in 
order  to  destroy  him,  but  once  more,  while  he  was  ut- 
tering the  thought,  the  new-born  conviction  that  God 
is  good  came  back  to  him  with  renewed  power,  and  he 
declared: 

Even  now,  behold,  my  witness  is  in  heaven, 
And  he  that  voucheth  for  me  is  on  high. 


222  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

Though  buffeted  to  death  by  God  and  scorned  by  his 
friends,  the  heart  Instinctively  turned  to  the  Almighty, 
and  Job  lifted  his  broken  heart  to  his  Creator. 

Again  this  conviction  is  expressed  in  ch.  19 :  25,  in  a 
context  in  which  Job  had  been  dwelling  on  the  immi- 
nence of  dissolution.  Here  he  expressed  his  conviction 
of  the  moral  character  and  unshakable  justice  of  God  in 
the  words: 

I  know  that  my  Vindicator  liveth, 

And  he  shall  arise  as  a  last  One  over  the  dust. 

God  is  the  vindicator,  because  he  is  just,  and  he  is  the 
last  One  because,  after  all  the  harsh  and  perverse  judg- 
ments of  men  have  been  expressed,  his  word  shall  be 
final.  Thus  the  sufferer  who  blasphemed  in  the  first 
agonies  of  his  torture,  reached  a  firmer  and  more  se- 
cure faith. 

Parallel  with  this  reviving  faith  in  God  there  grew 
in  Job's  soul  the  conviction  of  a  future  life.  Like  all 
his  Semitic  kinsfolk  he  had  believed  that  the  departed 
go  into  Sheol,  a  cavern  within  the  earth,  where,  de- 
prived of  all  the  joys  of  real  life,  for  a  time  they  lead  a 
shadowy  and  undesirable  existence.^  Job's  suffering 
had  created  in  him  a  longing  to  come  face  to  face  with 
God,  that  he  might  be  vindicated  (13:22).  This  long- 
ing had  taken  the  form  of  a  wish  that,  if  a  man  die, 
he  might  live  again  (14:  13-15).  At  last  his  reviving 
faith  in  the  moral  nature  of  God  led  him  to  the  convlc- 

1  See  Isa.  i4:9f.,  and  Eze.  32:22-32. 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE  SAGES  223 

tlon  that,  though  his  flesh  should  perish,  yet  apart  from 
his  flesh  he  should  see  God  (19:27).  As  in  many 
minds  since,  the  conviction  that  God  is  good,  combined 
with  the  impossibility  of  realizing  an  adequate  theodicy 
in  this  life,  kindled  his  faith  in  a  life  with  God,  where 
such  a  theodicy  could  be  experienced.^ 

The  poet,  too,  has  represented  Job  as  discovering  the 
healing  power  of  present  communion  with  God.  Job 
had  longed  to  come  face  to  face  with  God  as  with  an 
opponent  in  a  lawsuit  (13:22),  then  the  conviction 
grew  that  a  close  approach  to  God  might  result  in  some 
sort  of  communion  (14:  15).  After  that,  when  he  de- 
spaired of  living  to  meet  God  in  this  life,  he  had  reached 
the  conviction  that  he  would  come  face  to  face  with 
God  in  an  after  life  and  be  vindicated  (19:25-27). 
This  conviction,  reached  in  a  moment  of  exaltation,  was 
apparently  not  an  abiding  one.  As  the  feelings  of  the 
patient,  whose  nerves  were  weakened  by  illness,  ebbed, 
the  glowing  hope  receded  again  into  the  background. 
So  Job  in  his  final  appeal  to  God  demanded  that  his 
divine  Adversary  should  answer  him,  declaring  that  he 
would  go  into  the  divine  Presence  proudly  wearing  his 
indictment  upon  his  shoulder  (31  :  35-37).  Then  God 
appeared  to  Job  in  the  whirlwind,  and  the  Infinite  Pres- 
ence affected  Job  in  ways  that  he  had  not  anticipated. 
Life  looked  different  when  viewed  from  the  divine 
point  of  view;  new  feelings  of  penitence  and  of  trust 
sprang  up  within  him,  and  he  made  the  unexpected  dis- 
1  Compare  G.  A.  Gordon,  Immortality,  A  Neiv  Theodicy,  Boston,  1897. 


224  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

covery  that  the  solution  of  life's  paradoxes  and  travail 
are  really  to  be  found  in  present  communion  with  God.^ 
One  goes  on  happily,  not  because  he  knows  the  answer 
to  life's  riddle,  but  because  he  is  conscious  that  he  lives 
In  the  loving  companionship  of  One  who  knows  and 
will  guide  the  feet  of  his  child  Into  the  ways  of  peace. 

In  treating  his  immortal  theme  in  this  way  the  great 
poet  has  not  only  set  forth  the  solid  foundation  of  re- 
ligion, and  pictured  the  growth  of  a  soul  as  It  may  be 
shaped  in  the  furnace  of  life,  but  he  has  Incidentally 
shown  at  once  the  function  and  the  limitations  of  reason 
in  religion.  Its  function  Is  to  question  and  demolish 
outworn  theologies, —  to  criticize  and  to  brush  aside 
theories  of  the  divine  government  that  no  longer  sat- 
isfactorily explain  the  facts  of  experience.  Reason 
cannot,  however,  penetrate  the  deeper  mysteries  of  life; 
It  can  give  no  satisfactory  answers  to  life's  tragedy  and 
heart-break.  Only  God  can  do  this  as  he  enters  Into 
communion  with  the  soul  In  living  experience. 

In  a  much  lower  rank  than  the  great  poet  of  Job 
stand  the  writers  of  Proverbs.  Job,  when  the  interpo- 
lations are  removed.  Is  the  connected  working  out  of  a 
great  thought  by  a  great  mind.  Proverbs  on  the  other 
hand  is  a  collection  of  sayings  of  wise  men  from  va- 
rious ages  and  times.  Aside  from  the  general  intro- 
duction (ch.  i:  1-6)  there  are  eight  separate  strata  In 
the  book,  and  a  number  of  these  have  titles  which  Indi- 

1  See  Barton,  Commentary  on  Job,  9-12,  Peake,  Job  18-21,  and  Prob- 
lem of  Suffering  in  the  Old  Testament,  London,  82-102. 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE  SAGES  225 

cate  that  they  were  separate  collections  of  sayings  of 
the  wise  before  they  were  placed  in  our  book  of  prov- 
erbs.^ These  collections  all  teach  a  sound  morality 
and  a  real,  though  not  an  impassioned,  religion.  Their 
tone  is  practical,  and  the  motive  urged  for  a  moral 
life  as  well  as  for  the  fear  of  God  is  usually  expediency. 
The  authors  exhibit  deep  insight  Into  the  motives  of 
human  conduct,  and  at  times  show  real  humour.  This 
last  appears,  for  example,  in  the  words  addressed  to 
the  drunkard  in  ch.  23  :  34: 

And  thou  shalt  be  like  one  lying  in  the  midst  of  the  sea, 
Or  one  lying  on  the  top  of  a  mast, 

or  in  the  following  from  ch.  20:  14: 

It  is  bad,  it  is  bad,  says  the  buyer. 

But  when  he  is  gone  his  way,  then  he  boasteth. 

In  all  the  parts  of  the  book  except  the  first  we  have  sim- 
ply collections  of  thoughts.  The  different  proverbs  lie, 
for  the  most  part,  like  marbles  in  a  bag;  they  touch, 
but  have  no  organic  connection.  This  is  not  the  case  in 
ch.  1-9.  Here  a  wise  man  gives  instruction  in  a  con- 
nected discourse  to  a  pupil,  who  is  addressed  as  "  my 
son."     This  Instruction  reaches  its  most  poetic  culmlna- 

1  These  parts  are  as  follows:  a  discourse  on  wisdom,  1:7-9:18;  a 
collection  of  proverbs  entitled  "The  Proverbs  of  Solomon,"  10:1-22:  16; 
another  collection  entitled  "The  Words  of  the  Wise,"  22:17-24:22; 
another,  called  "Other  Sayings  of  the  Wise,"  24:23-34;  "Proverbs  of 
Solomon,  which  the  Men  of  Hezekiah,  King  of  Judah,  copied  out," 
25-29;  "The  Words  of  Agur,"  30;  "The  Words  of  Lemuel,"  31:1-9; 
"A  Worthy  Woman,"  31:10-31. 


226  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

tlon  In  ch.  8,  which  Is  devoted  to  a  praise  of  wisdom. 
Toward  the  end  of  the  chapter  wisdom  Is  personified 
as  a  helper  that  stood  beside  God  as  an  architect  at 
the  creation,  apparently  to  aid  him.  Perhaps  this  was 
no  more  than  a  strong  literary  metaphor,  but  neverthe- 
less this  and  similar  personifications  by  later  writers 
are  probably  what  Influenced  Paul  to  call  Christ  the 
"  wisdom  of  God." 

On  the  whole  the  proverb-writers  represent  a  worldly- 
wise  ethics  and  an  expedlentlal  fear  of  God.  In  this 
work-a-day  world  It  Is  necessary  at  times  that  this  side 
should  be  emphasized  as  well  as  inner,  spiritual  ex- 
perience. There  are  those  who  can  appreciate  religion 
in  no  other  form,  but  to  many  this  form  does  not  appeal 
as  much  as  the  deeper  experiences  of  Job. 

The  sages  are  represented  In  the  Old  Testament  by 
still  a  different  type  of  mind.  This  is  found  in  the 
author  of  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes,  who  lived  and  wrote 
In  Palestine  about  200  B.c.^  Its  author  was  a  sage, 
who  had  largely  outgrown  the  formal  religion  of  his 
people  and  had,  unfortunately,  found  no  other.  He 
had  not  lost  faith  in  God's  existence.  He  still  believed 
God  to  be  a  powerful,  transcendent  Being,  who  keeps 
man  in  ignorance  of  his  ways,  and  who  has  circum- 
scribed man  in  the  meshes  of  fate,  so  that  man  may  be 
compelled  to  fear  God.  Ecclesiastes,  or  the  Preacher, 
counsels  reverence,  obedience,  and  the  faithful  perform- 

1  See  Barton,  Ecclesiastes,  in  the  International  Critical  Commentary, 
1908,   pp.   58-65. 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE  SAGES  227 

ance  of  whatever  covenants  one  enters  Into  with  God. 
His  conception  of  God  was  not  an  attractive  one,  but 
such  religion  as  he  had  was  sincere.  He  had  no  toler- 
ance for  shams  In  religion,  nor  any  sympathy  for  the 
glib  worshipper  who  will  In  moments  of  danger  conve- 
nant  with  God  for  anything,  If  only  he  may  escape,  and 
then  go  his  way  In  forgetfulness  when  the  danger  Is 
past  (see  Eccl.  5  :  1-7). 

For  the  rest  the  Preacher's  outlook  on  life  Is  not  In- 
spiring. He  had  sounded  the  depths  of  all  human 
functions  and  pleasures  and  his  deliberate  verdict  Is 
that  all  Is  vanity  and  a  striving  after  empty  air.  All 
real  pleasure  eludes,  he  believed,  him  who  pursues  it. 
A  ceaseless  round  of  vain  efforts  characterized,  to  his 
mind,  all  the  activities  both  of  nature  and  of  man.  No 
hope  of  an  Immortality  In  which  a  greater  satisfaction 
could  be  experienced  brightened  his  outlook.  He  knew 
of  the  doctrine,  but  rejected  It  as  not  supported  by  suf- 
ficient evidence  (Eccl.  3:19-21).  Notwithstanding 
this,  his  philosophy  of  life  Is  not  altogether  dark.  His 
attitude  Is  manly  and  healthy.  If  not  Inspiring.  He  ad- 
vises one  to  enter  Into  life  heartily,  be  kindly,  venture 
to  sow  and  reap,  fill  up  the  whole  round  of  life's  duties 
while  you  can.  The  young  are  to  make  the  best  use 
of  their  bodily  powers  during  the  years  when  life  Is 
strong,  for  Inevitable  decay  comes  with  advancing 
years,  and  cheerless  Sheol  will  end  all  (Eccl.  11  and  12 
except  the  glosses).  The  few  years  of  bodily  vigour 
constituted,  In  the  Preacher's  view,  man's  only  chance 


228  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

for  a  little  enjoyment.  His  advice,  however,  Is  always 
moral.  Immoral  excesses  he  believed  robbed  man  even 
of  this  meed  of  enjoyment.^ 

The  words  of  Ecclesiastes  would,  probably,  never  have 
been  preserved  for  us,  had  not  his  literary  Impersona- 
tion of  Solomon  (Eccl.  i:  12  ff.),  been  mistaken  for 
literal  fact.  Even  then  his  words  had  to  be  softened 
down  by  two  Interpolators  before  they  ceased  to  give 
offence.  One  of  these  interpolators  was  of  the  ortho- 
dox Jewish  type, 2  the  other  was  a  sage,  who  besprinkled 
the  pages  with  a  number  of  proverbs  that  often  Inter- 
rupt the  flow  of  the  thought."^  This  last  writer  acted, 
perhaps,  also  as  the  editor,  who  supplied  the  title  and  a 
very  few  editorial  touches,'*  but  even  with  all  these  helps 
the  book  of  Ecclesiastes  represents  a  minimum  of  faith 
and  a  maximum  of  scepticism.  If  the  Bible  is  meant  to 
speak  to  every  mood  of  the  mind  of  man,  Ecclesiastes 
has  his  place  In  the  canon,  for  often  In  the  course  of 
history  men  have  gone  through  the  Preacher's  sceptical 
experience.  Though  Job  or  the  Psalms  much  more 
often  speak  the  needed  message  to  a  troubled  heart.  It 
Is  well  that  Ecclesiastes  should  stand  as  a  perpetual 
monitor  to  the  sceptical,  that  life  need  never  fall  to  an 

1  For  a  fuller  statement,  see  Barton,  Ecclesiastes,  pp.  46-50. 

2  This  writer  added  2:26;  3:17;  7:18b,  26b,  29;  8:2b,  3a,  5,  6a, 
11-13;   11:9b;   12:1a,   13  from  the  words  "fear  God,"  and   14. 

3  This  writer  added  4:5;  5:3,  7a;  7:1a,  3,  5,  6-9,  11,  12,  19;  8:1; 
9:17,   18;   10:1-3,   8-i4a,   15,   18,   19. 

*The  editorial  material  consists  of  i :  i,  the  words  "  says  the  Preacher  " 
in  1:2;  7:  27,  and  12:  8. 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE  SAGES  229 

Immoral  level,  or  lack  of  faith  drive  one  to  self-de- 
struction. 

Although  not  Included  in  our  Protestant  canon  of 
Scripture,  there  are  two  other  products  of  Israel's  circle 
of  sages  which  have  had  wide  Influence  in  the  Christian 
world,  the  so-called  Ecclesiastlcus,  or  the  Wisdom  of 
the  Son  of  Sirach,  and  the  book  which  Is  entitled  The 
Wisdom  of  Solomon.  The  first  of  these  was  composed 
by  Joshua  (in  Greek,  Jesus)  son  of  Sirach  about  190— 
180  B.  c,  and  was  translated  into  Greek  about  130  B.  c. 
by  his  grandson,  of  the  same  name.  We  now  know  It 
In  both  the  Hebrew  and  the  Greek  text. 

Ecclesiastlcus  resembles  the  book  of  Proverbs.  It 
contains  much  of  the  same  sort  of  gnomic  wisdom  — 
shrewd  observations  upon  various  aspects  of  life  and 
conduct,  expressed  in  brief  poetic  form.  Its  author, 
like  the  author  of  Proverbs  1-9  holds  wisdom  In  high 
esteem.  Wisdom  and  knowledge  are  to  his  mind  vir- 
tue, and  the  fool  and  the  ungodly  are  placed  In  the 
same  category  and  both  are  condemned  to  a  lot  worse 
than  death  (Ecclus.  22:  11,  12).  His  praise  of  wis- 
dom in  ch.  24  rises  to  a  lofty  poetic  strain  and,  like 
Prov.  8,  makes  a  strong  personification  of  wisdom.  Ec- 
clesiastlcus like  Proverbs  holds  that  the  fear  of  God  Is 
wisdom,  and  also  as  in  Proverbs  the  conception  of  re- 
ligion is  controlled  by  prudential  consideration.  He 
sometimes  carries  expediency  to  the  point  of  hypocrisy, 
as  in  38:  17,  where  he  counsels  one  to  weep  bitterly  at 
a  funeral  "  lest  thou  be  evil  spoken  of."     The  writer, 


230  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

like  the  author  of  Ecclesiastes,  had  no  outlook  beyond 
the  grave  (Ecclus.  10:  11;  19:3),  and  no  passionate 
yearning  for  a  high  ideal  breathes  from  his  pages. ^ 

Of  a  very  different  character,  in  some  ways,  is  the  so- 
called  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  which  was  written  in  Greek 
probably  in  the  first  century  before  Christ.  Its  author 
shares  with  Proverbs  and  the  son  of  Sirach  a  profound 
reverence  for  wisdom.  His  seventh  chapter  contains 
a  praise  of  personified  wisdom  as  beautiful  and  as  im- 
passioned as  theirs.  In  his  view,  too,  virtue  is  wisdom 
and  knowledge,  but  he  goes  further  and  holds  that  wis- 
dom is  the  active  revelation  of  the  divine  will. 

This  writer  was  passionately  religious.  He  sympa- 
thized with  the  Chasidtm,  that  class  of  pious  souls  in 
Israel  out  of  which  the  Pharisees  were  developed.  One 
of  the  objects  of  his  book  was  to  combat  false  teachers, 
among  whom  was  the  author  of  our  book  of  Ecclesi- 
astes.^ 

He  believed  that  moral  renewal  comes  only  by  the 
gift  of  God,  and  moral  dynamic  is  from  above,  (Wisd. 
8:21,  9:6);  nevertheless  wisdom  which  gives  this 
moral  dynamic,  may  be  found  of  all  who  seek  her 
(Wisd.  6  :  1 2  f.) .  The  whole  thesis  of  the  book  is  that 
the  moral  life  can  be  lived  only  in  fellowship  with  wis- 

1  The  author  at  the  beginning  of  ch.  44  sets  himself  to  "  praise  famous 
men,"  and  in  this  and  in  following  chapters  he  takes  up  one  by  one 
the  characters  of  the  Old  Testament.  His  book  at  this  point  reveals 
to  us  how  much  of  the  Old  Testament  was  regarded  as  canonical  in 
his  day. 

2  For  proof,  see  Barton,  Ecclesiastes,  pp.  57,  58. 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE  SAGES  23 1 

dom.  As  wisdom  "  sitteth  by  the  throne  of  God  "  and 
Is  from  God,  and  as  one  cannot  be  perfect  unless  wis- 
dom be  granted  him,  It  follows  that  he  realized  that 
the  highest  life  Is  Impossible  apart  from  fellowship  with 
God.  As  the  Christian  speaks  of  fellowship  with 
Christ,  when  he  refers  to  that  divine  companionship 
that  Is  the  Inspiration  of  the  highest  life,  this  sage 
speaks  of  fellowship  with  wisdom.  He  had  In  his 
way  learned  the  same  secret  as  the  author  of  the  fifty- 
first  psalm.  This  fellowship  with  wisdom  appears  to 
have  led  him  to  entertain  a  hope  of  Immortality  (see 
WIsd.  8:  17). 

We  should  notice  In  passing  that  this  writer  held 
some  views  which  afterward  found  expression  In  the 
New  Testament.  He  Is  the  first  to  Identify  the  serpent 
of  the  garden  of  Eden  (Gen.  3)  with  Satan  (see  WIsd. 
2:  23,  24),  and  to  account  for  the  fall  of  man  thereby. 
Some  of  the  apocalyptlsts  had  held  that  the  fall  of  man 
was  accomplished  by  the  angels  who  came  down  to  earth 
and  took  human  wives  (Gen.  6:  2-4),^  but  this  writer 
championed  the  view,  to  which  Paul  afterward  gave 
such  powerful  expression  In  Romans  5:  12-19. 

The  writer  of  Wisdom  was  also  one  of  those  who 
helped  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  use  of  the  term 
"  Word "  In  the  Gospel  of  John.  Psalmists  and 
prophets  had  sometimes  so  personified  God's  word  as  to 
Imply  that  It  could  be  sent  on  errands  for  him.  Thus 
the  great  prophet  of  the  exile  says  that  God's  word  shall 

1  So  for  example  the  Ethiopic  Enoch,  chapters  6-8;  see  above,  p.  190  f. 


232  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

not  come  back  empty,  but  shall  accomplish  God's  pleas- 
ure (Isa.  55  :  1 1),  and  a  psalmist  had  sung: 

He  sendeth  out  his  word  and  healeth  them  (Ps.  107:  20). 

The  personification  of  the  divine  word  in  Wisdom  is 
even  more  emphatic.  In  speaking  of  the  night  when 
the  firstborn  of  the  Egyptians  were  slain,  he  says,  "  For 
while  .  .  .  that  night  was  in  the  midst  of  her  swift 
course,  thine  almighty  word  leaped  down  from  heaven 
out  of  thy  royal  throne,  as  a  fierce  man  of  war  into  the 
midst  of  a  land  of  destruction."  ^  Here  the  word  is 
not  far  removed  from  God  himself.  Into  the  ancestry 
of  the  term  Word  as  it  is  applied  to  Christ  in  the  Fourth 
Gospel  Greek  elements  as  well  as  those  of  Hebrew 
origin  entered,  but  the  use  of  the  term  "  word  "  by  this 
writer  shows  to  some  degree  what  that  Hebrew  ancestry 
was.^ 

A  survey  of  the  wisdom  literature  reveals  religious 
expression  of  very  diverse  types,  ranging  from  the  im- 
passioned utterances  of  Job's  growing  soul  as  it  throbbed 
with  pain  and  with  aspiration  to  the  prudential  expe- 
diency of  Proverbs  and  the  son  of  Sirach.  The  different 
parts  stand  upon  quite  different  levels  of  religious  in- 
sight and  inspiring  power.  It  is  a  striking  fact  that 
the  earliest  of  the  wisdom  writers  is  the  only  one  that 
made  a  great  contribution  to  religious  thought.     The 

1  Wisdom   18:  14,   15. 

2  On  the  Logos  doctrine  of  the  Gospel  of  John,  see  E.  F.  Scott,  The 
Fourth  Gospel,  ch.  v. 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE  SAGES  233 

author  of  Job  blazed  out  a  new  path.  After  him  the 
wisdom  literature,  when  read  chronologically,  makes  a, 
to  some  degree,  religious  anticlimax.  And  yet  It  Is  not 
altogether  an  anticlimax,  for  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon 
lifts  the  thought  out  of  the  commonplace  expediency  of 
Proverbs  and  Ecclesiastlcus  and  the  cold  scepticism  of 
Eccleslastes  Into  a  warmer  realm  of  faith  and  com- 
munion. Though  his  thought  lacks  the  creative  power 
of  the  author  of  Job,  It  Is  full  of  faith  and  a  genuine, 
calm  piety. 

We  cannot  be  too  thankful  that  the  sages  were  In- 
cluded In  the  Old  Testament.  Had  we  only  the  utter- 
ances of  priests  and  prophets,  the  whole  of  the  reflect- 
ive side  of  life  would  have  been  without  adequate  rep- 
resentation. It  would  have  seemed  that  the  Bible  had 
no  message  for  It.  The  wisdom  literature  for  ever  tes- 
tifies that  God  has  a  message  for  the  men  who  think,  as 
well  as  for  the  men  who  pray  —  for  the  unimaginative, 
commonplace  doer,  as  well  as  for  the  prophet  of  in- 
spired and  inspiring  vision. 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  The  Problem  of  Suffering  in  Job;  cf.  A.  S.  Peake,  The 
Problem  of  Suffering  in  the  Old  Testament,  London,  1904, 
chapter  5 ;  G.  A.  Barton,  Commentary  on  Job  in  the  Bible  for 
Home  and  School,  New  York,  191 1,  pp.  7-13,  40—42. 

2.  The  Future  Life  in  Job;  cf.  R.  H.  Charles,  A  Critical 
History  of  the  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life  in  Israel,  in  Judaism 
and  in  Christianity,  London,  1899,  pp.  68-72;  G.  A.  Barton, 
Job  (as  above),  p.  9  ff.,  140  ff.,  p.  175  ff. 


234  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

3.  Study  comparatively  the  Praise  of  Wisdom  in  Job  28, 
Prov.  8,  Ecclesiasticus  24,  and  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  7. 

4.  The  Scepticism  of  Ecclesiastes ;  cf.  Barton,  Ecclesiastes  in 
International  Critical  Commentary,  pp.  32-50. 

5.  A  Comparison  of  Eg>^ptian  and  Babylonian  Wisdom ;  cf .  J. 
H.  Breasted,  The  Developjuent  of  Religion  and  Thought  in 
Ancient  Egypt,  New  York,  1912,  chapter  7;  G.  A.  Barton, 
Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  Philadelphia,  19 16,  Part  II,  chapters 
20  and  22. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

FIVE  RELIGIOUS  TRACTS 

The  Short  Story  not  a  Modern  Invention  —  Ruth  taught  God's  Favour 
to  Foreigners  —  Jonah  a  Humorous  Allegory  —  A  Missionary 
Tract — Its  Teaching  that  of  Second  Isaiah  —  Esther  and  the  Feast 
of  Purim  —  Origin  of  the  Book  —  Vengeance  —  Noblesse  Oblige  — 
Self-Sacrifice  and  Deception  in  Judith  —  Tobit — His  Practical  Re- 
ligion—  Persian  Influences. 

We  are  accustomed  to  think  that  the  short  story  is  a 
modern  invention.  Such  a  view  would  be  impossible 
if  we  rightly  appreciated  the  literature  in  our  Bibles, 
for  there  are  three  interesting  short  stories  in  the  Old 
Testament,  and,  if  we  include  the  Apocrypha,  there  are 
five.  These  short  stories  were  each  written  for  a  pur- 
pose more  or  less  closely  connected  with  religion.  They 
come  from  different  centuries;  their  authors  represent 
different  standpoints;  their  messages,  accordingly,  vary. 
The  oldest  of  these  is  the  book  of  Ruth,  a  beautiful 
idyl,  which  transports  us  in  imagination  to  the  period 
of  Israel's  Judges.  This  was  the  most  barbarous  pe- 
riod of  Israel's  history,  but  in  the  pages  of  Ruth  the 
barbarism  does  not  appear.  The  reader,  instead  of 
seeing  these,  beholds  only  such  suffering  as  death  and 
bereavement  may  bring  to  all  in  every  age.  The  whole 
sweep  of  the  story  moves  in  such  experiences  as  all 
understand.     The  lonely  widow  returning  to  her  kin- 

2ZS 


236  THE  RELIGION  OF  ISRAEL 

dred,  the  faithful  daughter-in-law  who  endures  exile 
rather  than  desert  a  lonely  woman,  the  niggardly  kins- 
man who  was  unwilling  to  perform  the  duty  of  the  next 
of  kin,  the  more  noble  Boaz,  generous  to  the  poor,  who 
first  befriends  a  woman  out  of  charity,  and  then  makes 
her  his  bride,  all  move  attractively  across  the  pages 
of  the  brief  story  and  make  a  universal  appeal.  Cer- 
tain of  the  customs  are  archaic;  the  course  of  Ruth  is 
more  in  accord  with  ancient  Semitic  customs  than  with 
those  of  modern  society.  Nevertheless  the  story  can 
never  lose  its  charm  so  long  as  death  breaks  up  homes, 
unselfish  love  gladdens  bereaved  hearts,  and  men  and 
women  love  and  wed. 

The  climax  of  the  whole  story  lies  in  the  fact  that 
Ruth,  the  foreign  girl,  became  the  mother  of  the  great 
king,  David.  It  was  to  impress  this  fact  that  the  book 
was  written.  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  inaugurated  in  the 
fifth  century  B.  c.  a  campaign  against  foreign-born  wives. 
With  the  zeal  of  narrow  sectarians  they  insisted  that 
all  such  wives  should  be  put  away  (see  Ezra  10;  Neh. 
13:23  f.).  Affection  they  disregarded.  The  rights 
of  faithful  women  were  nothing  in  their  eyes,  unless 
the  women  happened  to  be  of  Hebrew  ancestry.  The 
children  of  such  mothers  suffered  with  them,  but  in  the 
eyes  of  the  zealous  puritans  no  sacrifice  was  too  great. 
The  congregation  of  the  Lord  must  be  purged  of  all 
foreign  blood  —  of  all  possible  taint  of  foreign  re- 
ligion. 

The  author  of  this  book  uttered  a  protest  against 


FIVE  RELIGIOUS  TRACTS  237 

such  narrow  zeal.  He  demonstrated  that  David,  the 
king  whom  they  venerated,  the  king  after  God's  own 
heart,  was  descended  from  a  foreign  mother.  The 
lesson  was  obvious.  God  did  not  disapprove  of  for- 
eigners as  such.  He  had  blessed  Ruth  in  a  signal  way. 
The  author  did  not  say,  as  Peter  afterward  did,  "  God 
is  no  respecter  of  persons;  but  in  every  nation  he  that 
feareth  him  and  worketh  righteousness  is  acceptable  to 
him,"  but  such  is  clearly  the  inference  to  be  drawn  from 
his  story. 

Another  delightful  story,  written  to  teach  a  lesson 
still  more  lofty,  constitutes  our  book  of  Jonah.  It  will 
surprise  some  to  find  Jonah  classified  as  a  story,  rather 
than  a  prophecy,  but  that  is  only  because  Jonah  is  the 
most  misunderstood  of  all  the  books  of  the  Bible.  It 
is  not  a  prophecy,  but  a  story  about  a  prophet.  Com- 
pare it  with  the  books  of  Amos  and  Hosea,  and  he 
must  indeed  be  obtuse  in  literary  perception  who  can- 
not see  that  it  is  a  work  of  entirely  different  character. 
To  take  it  as  literal  history  has  been  the  occasion  of 
endless  jests  from  mockers,  and  equally  endless  perplexi- 
ties. As  history  it  presents  serious  difficulties,  and 
improbabilities;^  as  a  story,  it  is  delightful,  attractive, 
and  entertaining.  It  charms  the  reader  with  its 
piquant  incidents;  it  inspires  him  with  its  broad  re- 
ligious horizons.  If  it  provokes  a  smile,  may  it  not 
have  been  intended  to  do  so?     Only  a  most  unimagin- 

^  See  the  excellent  statement  of  this  in  Bewer's  Jonah  in   the  Inter- 
national Critical  Commentary,  p.  3. 


238  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

atlve  age  could  hold  that  the  Bible  has  no  place  for 
humour! 

The  story  of  Jonah's  fish  was  long  regarded  as 
unique,  but  can  no  longer  be  so  regarded.  Such  stories 
have  been  told  among  many  peoples,  and  Frobenius  calls 
them  ''  Jonah-stories."  ^  Perhaps  this  part  of  the  tale 
was  suggested  to  the  author  by  the  fact  that  Babylon 
had  been  spoken  of  as  a  dragon  who  had  swallowed 
Israel  up  in  the  exile,  but  who  should  be  made  to  cast 
her  out  of  his  maw;  (Jer.  51  :  34,  44).  It  is  clear  that 
the  purpose  of  the  book  of  Jonah  was  to  teach  Israel 
a  lesson,  and  it  would  not  be  strange  if,  with  Jeremiah 
before  him,  the  author  intended  by  this  story  to  alle- 
gorize the  Babylonian  exile. 

But  in  this  case,  why  should  he  call  the  hero  of  his 
story  Jonah?  Such  a  prophet  had  lived  in  the  first 
half  of  the  eighth  century  in  Israel  (II  Kings  14:  25), 
but  why  should  his  name  be  selected  rather  than  that 
of  some  more  prominent  prophet?  Perhaps  because 
the  name  Jonah  means  "  Dove,"  and  "  Dove  "  was  often 
a  symbolic  name  for  Israel. ^ 

The  story  seems  to  have  been  written  In  the  third  cen- 
tury before  Christ,  perhaps  about  250  B.  c.  It  was  writ- 
ten to  satirize  Israel  for  her  unwillingness  to  fulfil  her 
God-given  mission.  The  great  prophet  of  the  exile  had 
taught  that  Israel's  mission  was  to  make  God  known  to 
the  world.     All  her  suffering  had  been  to  this  end  (Isa. 

1  See  Bewer,  Jonah,  6. 

2  See  Encyclopedia  Biblica,  II,  2567,  n.  4,  and  Bewer,  Jonah,  8. 


FIVE  RELIGIOUS  TRACTS  239 

52:13-53:12),  and  was  to  become  a  potent  means 
of  bringing  the  nations  to  realize  their  sinfulness.  The 
book  of  Jonah  approaches  the  same  great  theme  In  a 
different  way.  God  sent  the  "  Dove  "  on  a  message 
to  one  great  nation,  but  she  was  unwilling  to  go,  and 
tried  to  run  away  from  the  task.  As  a  punishment  she 
was  swallowed  up  In  the  Babylonian  exile,  but  God  mar- 
vellously preserved  her  life,  and  caused  her  to  escape 
that  she  might  still  perform  her  mission.  She  engaged 
In  a  little  service  and  Gentiles  repented,  but  she  was 
angry  because  God  did  not  destroy  them.  This  whole 
attitude  is,  in  the  book  of  Jonah,  held  up  to  ridicule. 
With  his  satire  and  his  humour  the  author  prods  his  un- 
willing compatriots  to  the  performance  of  that  glorious 
duty  which  the  Second  Isaiah  had  portrayed  with  such 
pathos  and  sympathy. 

The  book  of  Jonah  is  a  missionary  tract.  Its  author 
is  the  one  man,  whose  work  has  come  down  to  us,  who, 
in  the  time  after  the  exile,  caught  the  vision  which 
the  Second  Isaiah  had  had  of  Israel's  mission  for  God, 
and  urged  it  upon  his  countrymen.  His  was  the  world- 
wide conception  of  service  that  was  given  fuller  expres- 
sion in  Jesus  Christ,  and,  through  the  efforts  of  St.  Paul, 
finally  triumphed. 

Another  story  of  still  a  different  character  is  con- 
tained In  the  book  of  Esther.  Our  forefathers  of 
course  regarded  Esther  as  literal  history,  but  It  Is  not 
possible  to  so  regard  it  now.  We  know  that  the  name 
of  the  wife  of  Xerxes,  whom  the  Hebrews  called  Ahas- 


240  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

huerus,  was  not  Vashti,  but  Amestrls/  and,  so  far  as  we 
know,  he  had  no  other  wife.  It  has  also  been  shown 
that  Mordecai  and  Esther  are  not  the  names  of  his- 
torical persons,  but  are  but  slightly  disguised  forms  of 
the  names  of  the  Babylonian  deities,  Marduk  and  Ish- 
tar.  The  origin  of  the  names  of  Vashti  and  Haman 
is  not  so  certain,  but  in  the  opinion  of  several  scholars 
they  are  probably  of  Elamite  origin,  Vashti  being  a  cor- 
ruption of  Mashti,  an  Elamite  goddess,  and  Haman  a 
corruption  of  the  name  of  the  Elamite  god  Humbaba.^ 
The  book  of  Esther  was  clearly  composed  to  explain 
the  origin  of  the  feast  of  Purim,  which  was  celebrated 
on  the  14th  of  Adar.  Opinions  differ  as  to  the  origin 
of  this  festival.  One  theory  proposed  more  than  a 
hundred  years  ago,  which  has  proved  acceptable  to  a 
number  of  eminent  scholars,  is  that  Purim  originated 
in  the  celebration  of  the  victory  of  the  Jews  over  the 
Syrian  General  Nicanor  on  the  13th  of  Adar,  161  B.  c.^ 
For  a  time  the  anniversary  of  this  victory  was  celebrated 
as  a  festival.  It  seems  more  probable  that  Purim  is 
of  Babylonian  or  Persian  origin.  It  Is  probably  an  old 
spring  festival,  which  the  Jews  living  in  those  countries 
adopted,  just  as  Jews  in  modern  times  adopt  the  festi- 
vals of  the  people  in  the  midst  of  whom  they  live.  It 
is  only  thus  that  the  Persian  setting  and  colouring  of  the 
book  of  Esther  can  be  accounted  for.     They  are  inex- 

1  See  Herodotus,  ix,  109. 

2  See  Paton's  Esther  in  the  International  Critical  Commentary,  p.  67  f. 

3  I  Mace.  7:39-50;  II  Mace.  15:20-36;  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xii,  10,  6. 


FIVE  RELIGIOUS  TRACTS  24 1 

plicable  if  the  feast  originated  in  the  celebration  of  Nic- 
anor's  day.  It  is,  of  course,  possible  that  Nicanor's 
day  was  merged  with  a  festival  that  the  Jews  who  lived 
in  Mesopotamia  had  previously  adopted  from  their 
neighbours,  and  that  it  was  for  this  reason  that  the  feast 
became  a  general  one  among  orthodox  Jews,  but  cer- 
tainly the  story  of  the  book  of  Esther,  by  which  Purim 
is  justified,  is  of  Babylonian  origin. 

It  seems  probable,  too,  that  the  story  is  a  modification 
of  a  tale  that  the  Babylonians  had  told  of  a  victory  they 
had  at  some  time  won  over  Elam.  All  ancient  wars 
were  regarded  as  conflicts,  not  only  between  two  earthly 
armies,  but  also  between  their  gods.  A  war  between 
Babylonia  and  Elam  was  consequently  regarded  as  a 
conflict  between  Marduk  and  Ishtar  on  the  one  hand  and 
Humbaba  and  Mashti  on  the  other. 

While  the  exact  origin  of  the  tale  cannot  now  be  as- 
certained with  certainty,  it  is  clear  that  it  was  of  non- 
Jewish  extraction.  It  was  probably  chosen  and  two  of 
its  chief  characters  represented  as  Jewish,  because  it  de- 
scribed a  deadly  struggle,  and  was  thus  well  adapted  to 
summarize  the  struggles  with  persecutors  through  which 
the  Jews  were  so  often  called  upon  to  pass.  The  Jew- 
ish author,  in  giving  his  tale  a  setting  at  the  Persian 
court  of  Xerxes,  displayed  not  a  little  knowledge  of  Per- 
sian customs,  but  this  does  not  prove  his  tale  historical. 
Many  of  the  stories  of  the  Arabian  Nights  reflect  his- 
torical conditions  of  the  court  of  the  Caliphs  of  Bagdad, 
but   are   nevertheless   not   historical.     The    story   was, 


242  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

probably,  written  about  lOO  B.  c.  It  gave  an  explana- 
tion of  the  origin  of  the  new  feast  of  Purim,  and  at 
the  same  time  expressed  something  of  the  national  feel- 
ing against  foreigners  aroused  by  the  Maccabaean  strug- 
gle. 

One  of  the  strange  features  of  the  story  of  Esther  Is 
that  It  Is  almost  non-rellglous.  The  name  of  God  does 
not  occur  In  It.  No  religious  motive  Is  assigned  to  any 
action  which  It  records.  Intense  national  hatred  against 
the  Jews  Is  recorded,  and  this  Is  met  by  a  hatred  on  the 
part  of  the  Jews  equally  Intense.  Jews  escape  destruc- 
tion; those  who  planned  their  overthrow  are  themselves 
destroyed.  At  this  last  fact  Jews  exult,  not  with  the 
gladness  begotten  of  deliverance  merely,  but  with  the 
exultant  hatred  of  those  who  are  able  to  wreak  their 
vengeance  on  their  enemies. 

There  Is  one  noble  trait  portrayed  In  the  book  —  the 
heroism  of  Esther.  She  Is  braced  for  the  dangerous 
undertaking  that  might  so  easily  have  meant  death  by 
the  consideration  that  perhaps  her  high  position  had  been 
granted  her  for  just  such  a  service  (Esth.  4:  14).  Her 
action  Is,  accordingly,  the  vehicle  of  a  noble  lesson.  Po- 
sition, learning,  wealth  are  not  to  be  hoarded.  They  are 
great  trusts.  Their  possessors  should  In  times  of  crisis 
consider  that  Providence  has  especially  prepared  them 
for  heroic  service.  "  Who  knowest  whether  thou  hast 
not  come  to  the  kingdom  for  such  a  time  as  this?" 
Noblesse  oblige!  What  noble  spirit  can  resist  such  a 
call?     In  Esther's  case,  however,  the  call  Is  patriotic 


FIVE  RELIGIOUS  TRACTS  243 

rather  than  religious,  though  patriotism  and  religion  are 
closely  allied  and  often  merge  into  each  other. 

But  the  book  of  Esther,  through  its  dark  picture  of  the 
destructive  hatred  generated  by  oppression,  conveys  an- 
other much  needed  lesson.  Modern  lands  suffer  as 
acutely  from  race  antagonism  as  did  any  country  of 
the  ancient  world.  This  antagonism  results  in  plots  as 
bloody  and  cruel  as  that  depicted  in  the  book  of  Esther, 
and,  sometimes,  in  massacres  and  lynchlngs,  which.  If 
not  as  extensive  as  those  portrayed  In  Esther,  are  no 
less  barbarous.  All  modern  civilized  countries  suffer 
from  an  industrial  antagonism  which  is  at  times  as  deep- 
seated  and  as  fierce  as  race  antagonism  —  an  antagonism 
that  often  causes  war  and  bloodshed.  We  read  in  the 
pages  of  Esther  how  hate  always  begets  hate,  that  vio- 
lence begets  violence,  and  that  it  may  deflower  the  souls 
of  those  who  participate  in  it  of  their  fairest  beauty  and 
noblest  spirit. 

The  story  of  Judith  in  the  Apocrypha  is,  like  Esther, 
the  story  of  an  heroic  woman,  who  risked  her  life  to 
save  her  people.  It  was,  perhaps,  originally  told  of  an 
incident  in  the  Maccabaean  wars,^  but  the  version  of  it 
that  has  come  down  in  our  Apocrypha  was  written  with 
many  embellishments  in  the  first  century  b.  c,  perhaps 
about  the  time  of  Pompey's  siege  of  Jerusalem  In  the 
year  63  B.  c.     It  reads  much  more  like  a  modern  novel 

1  See  the  shorter  form  of  the  story  published  by  Gaster  in  the  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Society  of  Biblical  Archaeology,  XVI,  i6o,  161,  and 
Caster's  remarks  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Biblica,  II,  col.  2644. 


244  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

than  the  book  of  Esther  does,  and  though  full  of  his- 
torical Incongruities,  is  so  told  as  to  be  interesting  for 
the  sake  of  the  story.  The  conduct  of  Judith  expresses 
a  heroism  and  self-sacrifice  like  that  of  Esther.  The 
same  hatred  and  rejoicing  at  the  ruthless  destruction 
of  enemies,  on  which  we  have  just  commented,  appears 
In  Judith  also.  The  new  feature  of  its  teaching  Is  Its 
reverence  for  the  ceremonial  Jewish  law.  All  this  cere- 
monial Is  emphasized,  including  regulations  of  diet  and 
ceremonial  ablutions  (Judith,  10:5;  12:2,  7,  19;  16: 
8).  It  Is  implied  (ch.  11:10-13)  that  the  neglect 
of  the  laws  of  diet  will  so  anger  God  that  he  will  de- 
stroy his  chosen  people.  This  is  the  attitude  of  Pharisa- 
ism. This  scrupulous  regard  for  ceremonial  purity 
stands  In  striking  contrast  with  the  deliberate  lying  and 
deception  which  Judith  practised  (ch.  11:  11-17;  12: 
14-20),  not  to  mention  murder  (ch.  13:8).  Even 
while  Judith  was  lying  she  protested  that  she  was  tell- 
ing the  truth  (ch.  11:  5).  In  these  respects  the  story 
reflects  the  tendency  to  make  clean  the  outside  of  the 
cup  and  the  platter,  while  within  they  were  anything 
but  pure,  which  about  a  hundred  years  later  Christ 
so  strongly  denounced. 

The  book  of  Tobit,  composed  probably  about  100 
B.  c,  or  a  little  earlier,  contains  another  story  which 
reads  much  like  a  novel.  Much  of  the  scene  is  laid  In 
distant  Persia,  and  Persian  Influences  are  clearly  to  be 
traced  in  the  book.^     The  story  In  Its  present  form  Is  a 

1  As  in  the  case  of  the  demon  Asmodaeus,  Tobit,  iii,  17. 


FIVE  RELIGIOUS  TRACTS  245 

gradual  growth,  In  which  it  is  now  clearly  possible  to 
trace  some  elements  of  the  Story  of  Ahlkar,  another  tale 
that  was  popular  in  antiquity.^ 

The  book  is  difficult  to  classify  doctrinally,  since  op- 
posing currents  of  opinion  are  expressed  in  it.  In  some 
respects  its  writer  was  as  legalistic  as  the  Pharisees. 
He  prided  himself  on  not  having  eaten  the  bread  of  the 
Gentiles  (Tobit  1:10),  on  paying  tithes  (ch.  1:7), 
and  upon  fasting  and  prayer  (ch.  12:8).  He  also 
condemned  intermarriage  with  Gentiles  (ch.  4:12). 
In  these  respects  he  was  in  agreement  with  the  pious 
puritans  of  Judaism.  In  other  respects  the  teachings 
of  the  book  are  not  in  harmony  with  the  law.  Its  au- 
thor, for  example,  encourages  marriages  between  kins- 
folk (ch.  I  :  9;  3:  15;  4:  12;  5  :  II  f).  If  Tobit  7:  2-4 
is  to  be  taken  literally,  Sara  and  Tobias  were  first 
cousins,  in  which  case  the  book  advocates  a  marriage 
between  those  within  the  degrees  of  kinship  prohibited 
by  Lev.  18:6-18  and  20 :  11  f .  This  type  of  marriage 
was  common  in  Persia  ^  and  is  one  of  the  evidences  of 
Persian  influence  in  the  book. 

The  author  expressed  moral  teaching  of  a  high  order. 
A  master  should  pay  just  wages  to  his  servants  and 
should  pay  promptly  (ch.  4:  14,  12 :  i  f.).  He  had  a 
fine  sense  of  the  relative  value  of  material  things. 
"  Be  not,"  he  says,  "  greedy  to  add  money  to  money: 
but  let  it  be  as  refuse  in  respect  to  our  child  "  (5:18). 

1  See  J.  R.  Harris,  Story  of  Ahikar,  Cambridge  University  Press,  1898. 

2  See  J.  H.  Moulton  in  Expository  Times,  March,  1900. 


246  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

Again:  *' A  little  with  righteousness  is  better  than 
much  with  unrighteousness"  (12:8).  He  commends 
philanthropy  in  two  ways.  His  hero  buried  the  bodies 
of  his  slain  compatriots  (i:  19;  2:  i-io),  and  he  en- 
joined most  earnestly  the  duty  of  almsgiving  (1:3, 
16  f.;  4:16;  12:8).  His  philosophy  of  almsgiving 
was,  however,  false.  He  held  that  alms  atoned  for  sin 
and  delivered  from  death  (4:iof.;  12:9)— a  view 
which  has  been  shared  by  many  in  different  countries 
and  centuries,  and  which  still  leads  capitalists  to  salve 
their  consciences  for  the  robbery  of  widows  and  orphans 
by  founding  churches  and  endowing  colleges. 

Perhaps  Tobit's  closest  approach  to  the  teaching  of 
Christ  is  to  be  found  in  his  negative  form  of  the 
^'  golden  rule."  He  says  (ch.  4:  15)  •  "  That  which 
thou  hatest  do  to  no  man." 

Diverse  as  these  short  stories  are,  they  give  us  wel- 
come knowledge  of  some  of  the  many  forms  which  reli- 
gious thought  and  practice  took  during  the  centuries 
between  the  exile  and  the  coming  of  Christ. 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  Study  further  the  Purpose  of  Ruth;  cf.  ''  Ruth  "  in  Hast- 
ings, Dictionary  of  the  Bible  and  the  Encyclopaedia  Biblica. 

2.  Investigate  the  Theories  of  the  Book  of  Jonah;  cf.  Bewer, 
Jonah  in  the  International  Critical  Commentary,  pp.  6-23,  and 
G.  A.  Barton,  The  Roots  of  Christian  Teaching  as  Found  in 
the  Old  Testament,  Philadelphia,  1902,  chapter  51. 

3.  The  Nature  of  the  Book  of  Esther;  cf.  L.  B.  Paton,  Esther 


FIVE  RELIGIOUS  TRACTS  247 

in  the  International  Critical  Commentary,  pp.  47-93,  or 
"  Esther "  in  Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the  Bible  and  the  En- 
cyclopaedia Biblica. 

4.  The  Nature  and  Problems  of  Judith ;  cf.  "  Judith  "  in 
Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the  Bible  and  the  Encyclopaedia  Biblica, 
or  R.  H.  Charles,  Apocrypha  and  Pseudepigrapha. 

5.  The  Nature  and  Problems  of  the  Book  of  Tobit;  cf. 
"  Tobit "  in  Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the  Bible  and  the  En- 
cyclopaedia Biblica,  or  R.  H.  Charles,  Apocrypha  and  Pseud- 
epigrapha, 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE    HOPES    OF    THE    APOCALYPTISTS 

The  Nature  of  an  Apocalypse  —  Reasons  for  Apocalypses  —  Number  of 
Them  —  They  have  Common  Point  of  View  and  Common  Mate- 
rial—  Origin  of  the  Material  —  Apocalyptic  Theory  of  History  — 
Ethiopic  Enoch  1-36  —  Belief  in  Resurrection  and  Judgment  — 
Kingdom  of  God  —  Date  and  Composition  of  Daniel  —  Son  of  Man 
in  Daniel  —  Enoch  Parables  —  Pre-existence  of  the  Messiah,  the 
Son  of  Man  —  Temporary  Character  of  Apocalyptic  —  Its  Function. 

Apocalypse  is  a  form  of  literature  by  Itself.  It  is 
quite  distinct  from  prophecy,  and  developed  In  Israel 
only  after  prophecy  had  died  out.  It  has  been  pointed 
out  ^  that  prophecy  died  out  in  the  third  century  B.  c. 
After  that  time  no  one  dared  to  stand  up  and  In  his  own 
name  speak  as  an  oracle  of  Yahweh.  Notwithstanding 
this,  troublous  times  continued  to  come,  and  men  longed 
for  some  word  of  divine  guidance  as  of  old.  To  meet 
this  need  Individuals  began  to  write  apocalypses  or 
"  revelations."  These  men  were  apparently  obscure 
persons.  They  felt  that,  if  they  uttered  the  truth  which 
they  believed  God  wished  their  generation  to  know  in 
their  own  names,  it  would  fall  upon  heedless  ears.  The 
one  way  they  could  obtain  a  hearing  for  their  message 
was,  they  thought,  to  represent  It  as  the  message  of 
some  worthy  who  had  lived  long  ago  and  whose  name 
and  character  the  men  of  their  time  revered.     All  apoc- 

1  See  above,  p.  146. 

248 


THE   HOPES  OF  THE  APOCALYPTISTS  249 

alypses  are,  accordingly,  pseudeplgraphs,  i.e.,  they  are 
attributed  to  persons  who  did  not  write  them,  and  in 
all  cases  but  one,  to  men  who  lived  long  before  the 
writer's  time. 

This  does  not  mean  that  they  are  forgeries  in  the 
modern  sense  of  the  word  "  forgery."  The  apocalypse 
became  as  much  a  recognized  literary  form  in  the  cen- 
turies between  200  B.  c.  and  100  A.  d.  as  the  historical 
novel  is  today.  The  authors  of  apocalypse  were  most 
pious  and  patriotic  men.  Their  one  desire  was  to  give 
consolation  and  courage  to  their  suffering  brethren. 
They  were  willing  to  be  themselves  unknown  and  for- 
gotten. They  had  no  pride  of  authorship.  Their  one 
desire  was  that  the  inspiring  vision  that  had  come  to 
them  might  be  so  conveyed  to  others  as  to  be  heeded. 

The  famous  characters  chosen  to  be  the  mouthpieces 
of  the  apocalyptic  messages  were  men  like  Enoch,  Noah, 
the  twelve  sons  of  Jacob,  Baruch,  Ezra,  etc., —  men  who 
had  lived  long  ago.  How  could  these  men  be  plausibly 
represented  as  having  uttered  messages  for  the  later 
periods  in  which  the  apocalyptists  lived?  This  diffi- 
culty was  met  by  the  literary  form  of  the  apocalypse. 
The  early  saint  whoever  he  might  be,  whether  Noah, 
Enoch,  Moses,  or  another,  was  represented  as  having 
had  visions  in  which  the  future  course  of  the  history  of 
the  world  was  revealed  or  "  unveiled  "  to  him.  This 
was  always  done  in  a  kind  of  cipher  which  but  thinly 
veiled  the  real  history  of  the  past.  When  In  this  way 
the  course  of  events  had  been  traced  down  to  the  time 


250  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

of  the  apocalyptist,  a  prophecy  of  divine  intervention, 
whereby  God  was  to  come  to  the  rescue  of  his  people 
in  the   impending  crisis,   was   introduced.     The   thinly 
veiled  history,  all  of  which  had  been  future  to  the  saint 
who  was  supposedly  speaking,  was  of  course  easily  un- 
derstood by  the  readers,  and  when  they  saw  how  this 
was  true,  it  gave  them  greater  faith  in  the  prophecy 
that  referred  to  what  was  in  their  time  still  in  the  future. 
This  form  of  literature  must  have  been  most  helpful, 
or  so  many  apocalypses  would  not  have  been  composed. 
We  have  but  two  of  these  works  in  our  canon  of  Scrip- 
ture, Daniel  and  the  Book  of  Revelation,  but  in  modern 
times  two  apocalyptic  volumes  have  come  to  light  at- 
tributed to  Enoch,  two  to  Baruch,  one  to  Moses,  one  to 
Isaiah,  one  to  each  of  the  Hebrew  patriarchs,  not  to 
mention  the  Book  of  Jubilees,  the  Psalms  of  Solomon, 
and  parts  of  the  Sibylline  Oracles.     The  Book  of  IV 
Esdras,  called  in  the  English  Apocrypha  II  Esdras,  has 
never  been  lost,  and  did  not  need  to  await  discovery  in 
modern  times. 

The  mere  mention  of  these  books  does  not,  however, 
give  an  adequate  idea  of  the  number  of  apocalypses 
composed.  One  of  the  volumes  attributed  to  Enoch 
contains  no  less  than  five  different  apocalypses  now 
woven  into  one.  Among  these  parts  of  a  still  earlier 
apocalypse  of  Noah  can  be  detected.  One  of  the  vol- 
umes attributed  to  Baruch  has  in  like  manner  been  com- 
posed of  six  originally  separate  apocalypses  of  Baruch. 
IV  Esdras  is  likewise  a  conglomerate  of  several  works. 


THE  HOPES  OF  THE  APOCALYPTISTS  25 1 

It  Is  perhaps  not  too  much  to  say  that  no  single  apoca- 
lypse now  known  to  us  was  written  at  one  sitting.  All 
are  pieced  together  from  previously  existing  composi- 
tions, and  no  one  of  them  bears  the  name  of  Its  compiler. 
The  apocalyptic  method  makes  It  easy  In  most  cases 
approximately  to  fix  the  date  when  each  work  was  com- 
posed. So  long  as  history  Is  told  In  the  form  of  vision 
we  are  sure  the  writer  was  dealing  with  times  which  lay 
behind  him.  It  Is  when  his  prophecy  becomes  vague 
and  general,  that  we  know  he  has  reached  his  own  time 
and  Is  dealing  with  the  future. 

All  these  apocalyptlsts  have  a  similar  point  of  view 
and  a  mass  of  common  material.     This  material  seems 
to  have  been  traditional  with  them.     They  regarded  It 
as  the  key  to  the  ages,  and  each  one  tried  to  fit  it  Into 
the  lock  of  his  own  times.     This  material  was  drawn 
from  two  principal  sources,  unfulfilled  Old  Testament 
prophecy,  and  the  Babylonian  Creation  Epic.     A  good 
example  of  the  use  made  In  apocalypse  of  unfulfilled 
prophecy  may  be  seen  In  Daniel,  ch.  9,  which  Is  based 
on  Jer.  25  :  12.     The  motif  of  the  Babylonian  Creation 
Epic  may  be  said  to  underlie  most.  If  not  all,  apocalypse. 
According  to  this  epic  the  heavens  and  earth  were 
created  by  Marduk,  the  god  of  light,  out  of  the  dragon 
of  the  primitive  watery  chaos,  Tiamat.     The  result  was 
achieved  only  after  Marduk  had  fought  a  fierce  battle 
with  Tiamat  and  her  host  of  horrible  monsters,   had 
overcome  her,   and  cut  her  up.     To  the  apocalyptlsts 
Tiamat  was  represented  by  the  world  power  which  hap- 


252  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

pened  to  be  oppressing  the  Jews  in  his  day.  Yahweh, 
of  course,  took  the  place  of  Marduk.  The  fight  be- 
tween Marduk  and  TIamat  represented  to  him  the  fierce 
struggle  in  which  Yahweh  was  going  to  destroy  the  ter- 
rible oppressor  of  his  people.  Since  the  apocalyptists 
had  the  book  of  Genesis  before  them,  they  could  not 
think  that  this  Babylonian  material  referred  to  the  cre- 
ation of  the  present  heavens  and  earth.  If  they  gave 
it  any  credence  at  all,  they  must  consider  it  prophetic. 
This  they  all  did,  and  from  thence  came  their  view  that 
before  the  appearance  of  the  new  heavens  and  the  new 
earth  a  great  struggle  must  ensue.  The  great  dragon, 
the  world-power,  whether  Antiochus,  or  Rome  or  some 
special  emperor,  must  be  overcome  and  destroyed.  In 
the  light  of  the  origin  of  this  imagery  the  words  of 
Rev.  21  :  I,  "  I  saw  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  .  .  ., 
for  the  sea  is  no  more,"  gain  a  new  significance. 

This  Babylonian  material  expresses  the  general  view 
of  all  the  apocalyptists.  They  hold  that  the  world  is 
in  the  possession  of  an  evil  power.  This  power  is  tight- 
ening its  grip  on  all  mundane  things  and  its  arrogance 
is  increasing.  The  world  is  becoming  worse;  the  only 
hope  for  it  is  in  a  divine  cataclysmic  intervention  in 
which  the  world  power  shall  be  broken,  and  her  wicked 
adherents  destroyed.  After  this,  the  kingdom  of  God 
can  be  established. 

While  there  is  general  agreement  upon  this,  there  is 
in  the  apocalypses  a  great  variety  of  views  upon  details. 
Some  apocalyptists  entertained  a  lively  hope  in  the  com- 


THE  HOPES  OF  THE  APOCALYPTISTS  253 

ing  of  a  Messiah;  others  make  no  reference  to  a  Mes- 
siah at  all.  In  the  thought  of  the  former  the  Messiah 
was  to  be  the  agent  In  establishing  the  kingdom  of  God 
on  the  earth;  In  that  of  the  latter,  God  was  to  Intervene 
directly.  Some  apocalyptlsts  believed  the  kingdom  of 
God  was  to  be  established  upon  the  earth;  others  be- 
lieved It  would  be  established  In  heaven.  This  last  view 
was,  however,  the  later.  The  earlier  apocalyptlsts  ex- 
pected a  Messianic  kingdom  here  below. 

We  can  select  for  a  somewhat  closer  examination  the 
points  of  view  of  but  three  apocalypses,  two  which 
passed  under  the  name  of  Enoch,  and  the  Book  of 
Daniel. 

Our  oldest  bit  of  apocalyptic  literature  Is  the  so-called 
Ethlopic  Enoch,  1-36. ^  This  Is  not  all  from  one  hand. 
Chapters  6-1 1  are  taken  from  a  previously  existing 
apocalypse  of  Noah,  and  chapters  1-5  may  be  a  later 
addition.  It  may  be  said  with  some  confidence,  how- 
ever, that  chapters  6-36  were  composed  between  200 
and  170  B.  c. 

The  author  of  this  work  was  deeply  Impressed  with 
the  wickedness  of  the  world  and  sought  to  account  for 
It.  He  found  Its  explanation  In  the  sections  which  he 
Incorporated  from  the  apocalypse  of  Noah.  Accord- 
ing to  these  chapters  evil  was  Introduced  Into  the  world 
by  those  angels  who  came  down  from  heaven  and  mar- 
ried human  wives.  This  supposed  event  Is  alluded  to 
In  the  old  myth  recorded  In  Genesis  6 :  2-4,  where  the 

1  See  R.  H.  Charles,  The  Book  of  Enoch,  2d  ed.,  1912,  p.  i  f. 


254  ^^^  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

birth  of  the  heroes  of  olden  time  Is  explained.     Our 
apocalyptlsts    have    elaborated    the    brief    statement. 
They  know  the  names  of  the  archangels  who  led  these 
hosts.     These   names   are   appropriate   to   angels   who 
were  once  pure,  but  have  fallen  from  their  high  estate.^ 
They  know  that  these  angels,  when  they  came  down  to 
earth,  alighted  upon  Mount  Hermon,  and  they  know 
just  what  phase  of  knowledge  and  of  wickedness  each 
one  of  these  fallen  beings  taught  to  mankind.     Accord- 
ing to  the  theory  of  these  writers  sin  came   into  the 
world,  not  through  the  serpent's  temptation  of  Adam 
and  Eve  in  Eden,  but  through  the  agency  of  these  fallen 
angels.     This  point  of  view  was  shared  by  other  apoca- 
lyptlsts.    These  writers  seem  also  to  have  shared  the 
somewhat  pessimistic  point  of  view  of  the  old  J  docu- 
ment, in  that  they  consider  wickedness  and  a  knowledge 
of  the  arts  to  be  closely  Intertwined. 

In  the  later  part  of  this  work  Enoch  is  represented 
as  beholding  the  punishments  which  these  angels  ar^ 
already  suffering,  and  as  having  had  revealed  to  him 
their  final  rewards.  These  angels  and  their  fate  had  a 
great  fascination  for  some  other  apocalyptlsts,  and  even 
for  the  authors  of  Jude  and  II  Peter  in  our  New  Testa- 

ments.2  ,      i         u 

Another  interesting  feature  of  this  writer  s  thought 

iSee  the  writer's  article.  "The  Origin  of  the  Names  of  Angels  and 
Demons  in  the  Extra-canonical  Apocalyptic  Literature  to  lOO  A.  d  m 
the  Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  XXXI,  156  f.  and  above,  p.  190  ff. 

2  See  Jude  6  and  II  Pet.  2:4.  Jude  14  quotes  Enoch  1:9  as  a  genu- 
ine work  of  the  patriarch  Enoch. 


THE   HOPES   OF  THE  APOCALYPTISTS  255 

Is  that  he  believes  In  a  resurrection  at  which  the  right- 
eous are  to  receive  their  reward  and  the  wicked  are  to 
be  punished.  Until  this  judgment  comes,  the  two 
classes  will,  he  thinks,  be  kept  In  Sheol,  but  his  Sheol 
Is  not  that  of  the  Old  Testament.  It  Is  divided,  not 
Into  two  parts,  like  the  under-world  In  Vergil's  Aeneld, 
but  Into  four, —  one  for  the  very  good,  one  for  the 
very  bad,  a  third  for  the  partially  good,  and  a  fourth 
for  the  partially  bad.  Here  the  first  two  classes  men- 
tioned enter  by  way  of  anticipation,  upon  their  future 
bliss  or  woe.^ 

As  to  the  kingdom  of  God,  these  writers  believed  that 
it  was  to  be  established  upon  the  earth  after  the  re- 
moval of  the  wicked  (Enoch  10:  17-22).  God  him- 
self will  at  that  time  establish  his  throne  upon  the  earth 
(Enoch  25:3).  Neither  the  writer  of  the  apoca- 
lypse of  Noah,  nor  the  one  who  embodied  his  work 
in  the  book  of  Enoch  speaks  in  any  way  of  a  Mes- 
siah. 

A  few  years  after  the  composition  of  Enoch  1-36 
our  canonical  Book  of  Daniel  came  into  existence.  The 
unanimous  opinion  of  modern  scholars  is  that  it  was 
written  between  168  and  165  B.  c,  during  the  fierce 
struggles  precipitated  by  the  attempt  of  Antlochus 
Epiphanes  to  blot  out  the  Jewish  religion.  In  the  opin- 
ion of  the  present  writer,  it  consists  of  a  series  of  tracts 
for  the  times  written  by  at  least  three  different  men, 
though  they  all  lived  and  wrote  during  the  three  years 

1  See  Book  of  Enoch,  ch.  22. 


256  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

mentioned.^  They  all  professed  to  relate  visions  which 
had  been  granted  to  Daniel,  an  old  patriarch  whom 
Ezekiel  classes  with  Noah  and  Job.^  Toward  the  end 
of  this  period  of  three  years  some  editor  collected  these 
tracts  into  one  little  book. 

The  book  thus  constituted  contains  seven  little  apoca- 
lyptic stories  and  apocalypses,  and  two  encouraging 
narratives.  The  narratives  are  in  chapters  3  and  6, 
the  story  of  the  fiery  furnace  and  of  Daniel  in  the  lions' 
den.  The  apocalypses  are  in  chapters  2,  4,  5,  7,  8,  9, 
and  10:  1-12:  4,  respectively.  Five  of  the  apocalypses 
trace  the  history  from  Nebuchadnezzar  to  Antiochus 
Epiphanes  under  various  figures,  and  then  predict  the 
coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God;  two  of  them  (chapters 
4  and  5)  are  content  to  predict  the  punishment  of  the 
persecutor. 

Out  of  the  utterances  of  these  tracts  two  things  of 
importance  emerge.  One  is  the  phrase  in  ch.  7:13 
"  like  unto  a  son  of  man."  This  phrase  is  significant 
since  the  term  "  Son  of  man  "  afterward  became  the 
title  by  which  Jesus  called  himself.  It  should  be  noted, 
however,  that,  as  used  in  Daniel,  the  term  is  not  a  per- 
sonal or  Messianic  title.  It  is  used  simply  to  charac- 
terize the  kingdom  that  God  is  about  to  establish.  The 
four  preceding  empires  have  been  brutal  and  ruthless. 

1  See  the  writer's  article,  "  The  Composition  of  the  Book  of  Daniel," 
in  the  Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  XVII,  62-86.  V^ildeboer  was  con- 
vinced of  the  correctness  of  this  view ;  see  his  De  Letterkunde  des  ouden 
Verbonds,  1903,  p.  4^5  f- 

2  See  Eze.  14: 14. 


THE  HOPES  OF  THE  APOCALYPTISTS  257 

They  are  fittingly  characterized  by  beasts  —  the  Hon, 
bear,  leopard,  and  the  beast  indescribable.  God's  king- 
dom is  to  be  in  comparison  intelligent  and  humane.  It 
is  characterized  by  a  "  son  of  man  "  or  a  human  being. 
That  is  all  the  term  means  here,  but  it  thus  came  into 
human  speech  and  was  destined  to  high  service  in  the 
future. 

The  other  important  utterance  is  the  definite  expres- 
sion in  ch.  12:  2—4  of  a  faith  in  a  resurrection  and  a 
judgment  day,  followed  by  everlasting  rewards  and 
punishments.  Such  a  faith  this  writer  ardently  held. 
Not  yet  was  it  the  happy  possession  of  all;  Sadducees 
doubted  it  in  the  time  of  Christ.  It  must,  nevertheless, 
have  been  the  faith  of  a  growing  multitude.  That 
which  Job  had  hoped  for,  these  men  held  to  be  certain. 

A  third  apocalyptic  work  of  importance  to  us  is  the 
Enoch  Parables,  which  now  comprise  chapters  37-71 
of  the  Book  of  Enoch.  This  work,  which  consists  of 
three  parables,  was  not  all  written  at  one  sitting,  or 
even  by  one  hand,^  but  its  final  editor  has  nevertheless 
given  it  a  certain  unity  and  made  it  to  express  a  toler- 
ably consistent  point  of  view.  Its  writer,  like  the  com- 
piler of  Enoch  1-36,  was  interested  in  the  punishment 
of  the  fallen  angels,  but  he  lived  at  least  a  hundred 
years  ^  after  that  writer  and  his  whole  outlook  was  dif- 
ferent.    In  his  time  the  Asmonaean  kings  and  Saddu- 

1  See  R.  H.  Charles,  Book  of  Enoch,  p.  64  f. 

2  Charles  holds  that  Enoch  37-71  was  written  after  94  and  before 
64  B.  c,  and  probably  before  79  B.  c.  After  Alexander  Jannaeus  the 
Pharisees  were  not  oppressed. 


2^8  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

cees  were  oppressing  the  Pharisees,  and  his  sympathies 
were  with  the  Pharisees.  The  deliverance  which  God  was 
to  work  for  his  saints  was  from  these  ungodly  princes.^ 
Passing  by  all  minor  matters,  however,  we  direct  our 
attention  to  this  writer's  great  contribution  to  religious 
thought.  This  consists  of  his  transformation  of  Is- 
rael's Messianic  expectations.  He  first  of  all  of  whom 
we  know  held  that  the  Messiah  was  to  be  a  being  that 
had  enjoyed  pre-existence  with  God  in  heaven,  and  he 
also  was  the  first  to  use  the  term  "  Son  of  Man  "  as  a 
Messianic  title.  His  conceptions  of  the  Messiah  are 
clearly  expressed  in  two  or  three  different  places.  In 
ch.  46  he  says: 

And  there  I  saw  one  who  had  a  head  of  days, 

And  his  head  was  Hke  wool, 

And  with  him  was  another  being  whose  countenance  had  the 

appearance  of  a  man, 
And  his  face  was  full  of  graciousness,  like  one  of  the  holy 

angels. 
And  I  asked  the  angel  who  went  with  me  and  showed  me  all 

the  hidden  things,  concerning  that  Son  of  Man,  who  he 

was,   and   whence  he  was,   and  why   he  went  with   the 

Head  of  Days? 
And  he  answered  and  said  unto  me: 
This  is  the  Son  of  Man  who  hath  righteousness. 
With  whom  dwelleth  righteousness. 

And  who  revealeth  all  the  treasures  of  that  which  is  hidden, 
Because  the  Lord  of  Spirits  hath  chosen  him. 
And   whose  lot   hath   the   pre-eminence   before   the   Lord    of 

Spirits  for  uprightness  for  ever. 
1  See  Enoch  62:  10-13. 


THE  HOPES  OF  THE  APOCALYPTISTS  259 

The  passage  goes  on  to  describe  the  Messianic  role 
that  this  Son  of  Man  is  destined  to  undertake.  Again 
in  chapter  48  :  2  f .  is  the  following  statement : 

And  at  that  hour  that  Son  of  Man  was  named 
In  the  presence  of  the  Lord  of  Spirits, 
And  his  name  before  the  Head  of  Days. 

Yea,  before  the  sun  and  signs  were  created, 
Before  the  stars  of  the  heaven  were  made, 
His  name  was  named  before  the  Lord  of  Spirits. 

He  shall  be  the  staff  of  the  righteous  whereon  to  stay  them- 
selves and  not  fall, 
And  he  shall  be  the  light  of  the  Gentiles, 
And  the  hope  of  those  who  are  troubled  of  heart. 

All  who  dwell  on  the  earth  shall  fall  down  and  worship  be- 
fore him, 

And  win  praise  and  bless  and  celebrate  with  song  the  Lord 
of  Spirits. 

It  was  thus  that  the  expectation  of  a  warrior  king, 
which  Isaiah  had  centuries  before  conceived  as  the 
Messiah/  was  transformed  under  the  pressure  of  the 
eschatological  expectations,  and  men  began  to  look  for 
a  heavenly  pre-existent  being,  capable  of  taking  more 
than  a  human  part  in  the  cataclysmic  upheaval  for  which 
they  were  looking. 

It  is  probable  that  this  collection  of  Enoch  parables, 
which  were   clearly  written  by   a    Pharisee,    circulated 

1  Sec  above,  p.  105. 


26o  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

widely  among  the  adherents  of  that  sect.  The  sympa- 
thies of  Joseph  and  Mary  and  of  the  circle  at  Nazareth 
in  which  Jesus  grew  up  were  with  the  Pharisees,  and 
this  book  may  have  been  among  those  from  which 
Christ  read  as  a  boy. 

At  all  events  he  took  this  term  "  Son  of  Man  "  as  his 
self-designation,  and  measured  the  depths  of  his  own 
consciousness  of  God  against  the  background  of  such 
Messianic  expectations  as  these  and  claimed  in  some 
sense  to  be  the  Messiah.^  It  was  at  this  point  in  the 
development  of  the  conception  of  the  Messiah  that  he 
brought  in  his  view  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  the 
function  of  the  Messiah,  and  the  Jewish  Church  gave 
birth  to  the  Christian  Church.  Jesus  as  the  Christ  for 
ever  illumined  the  religious  message  of  Israel  by  adding 
to  it  the  Christian  message  for  which  Israel  had  pre- 
pared the  way. 

It  was  thus  that  apocalypse,  though  it  took  in  one 
sense  a  false  view  of  God's  relation  to  the  world,  per- 
formed a  most  useful  function.  It  sustained  men  with 
the  hope  that  God  would  soon  effectually  intervene  on 
behalf  of  his  saints,  when  their  hearts  would  have  failed 
them  could  they  have  seen  the  whole  future,  and  it  fur- 
nished the  calyx  that  was  to  preserve  the  older  concep- 
tion of  the  kingdom  of  God  and  of  a  Messiah  until  one 
should  come  who  could  ripen  both  ideas,  and  make  them 
blossom  into  a  beauty  of  which  neither  prophet  nor 
apocalyptist  ever  dreamed.     Even  then  the   apocalyp- 

1  See  the  writer's  Heart  of  the  Christian  Message,  N.  Y.,  1912,  p.  8  f. 


THE   HOPES  OF  THE  APOCALYPTISTS  26 1 

tist's  conception  died  hard.  The  apostles  did  not  un- 
derstand their  Master's  more  spiritual  view,  and  con- 
fidently expected  Jesus  to  return  on  the  clouds  of 
heaven.i  As  he  did  not  come  mockers  began  to  trouble 
the  church  with  reference  to  it  by  the  middle  of  the 
second  century,^  but  even  though  centuries  passed  away 
and  he  did  not  come,  many  have  still  not  lost  faith,  but 
believe  that  it  is  yet  to  be.  Other  generations,  they 
think,  have  misunderstood  the  time.  It  is  only  modern 
science  and  modern  criticism  that  is  revealing  to  us  the 
temporary  character  of  the  apocalyptic  view  of  the 
world.  Like  many  other  philosophies  it  was  but  a  pass- 
ing phase  of  thought,  but,  Hke  them,  it  rendered  a  real 
service  in  its  time.  It  was  one  of  the  most  important 
links  in  that  chain  of  providential  events  by  which  the 
world  received  its  most  precious  religious  inheritance. 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  The  Transition  from  Prophecy  to  Apocalyptic;  cf.  R.  H. 
Charles,  Religious  Development  between  the  Old  and  New  Tes- 
taments, New  York,  chapter  i  (in  the  Home  University  Li- 
brary). 

2.  The  Kingdom  of  God  in  Apocalyptic;  cf.  R.  H.  Charles, 

op.  cit.  chapter,  2. 

3.  The  Apocalyptic  Conception  of  the  Messiah;  cf.  R.  H. 
Charles,  op.  cit.  chapter  3. 

4.  The  Apocalyptic  Conception  of  the  Future  Life;  cf.  R.  H. 
Charles,  op.  cit.,  chapter  4. 

1  See  Mark  14:  62.     Compare  also  the  Heart  of  the  Christian  Message, 

pp.  2-5. 

2  See  II  Peter  3 :  3,  4- 


262  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

5.  The  Jewish  View  of  the  Pre-existence  of  the  Messiah;  cf. 
G.  Dalman,  The  Words  of  Jesus,  Edinburgh,  1902,  pp.  299- 
303,  and  G.  A.  Barton  in  '*  On  the  Jewish-Christian  Doctrine 
of  the  Pre-existence  of  the  Messiah,"  the  Journal  of  Biblical  Lit- 
erature, Vol.  XXI,  pp.  78-91. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE    JEWISH    DISPERSION 

Meaning  of  Dispersion  —  Its  Beginnings  —  The  "Captivity"  in  Bab- 
ylonia—  Its  Nature  and  Influence  —  Jewish  Colonies  in  Egypt  — 
The  Colony  at  Elephantine  —  Its  Temple  and  Religious  Life  — 
Later  Temple  at  Leontopolis  —  Dispersion  in  Persia  and  Else- 
where—  Foreign  Influences  and  the  Essenes  —  Dispersion  in  the 
Hellenic  World  — The  Septuagint —  Jewish  Propaganda —  The 
Sibylline  Oracles  —  Jewish  Drama  —  Allegorical  Method  —  Greek 
Philosophy  and  Wisdom  of  Solomon  —  Philo  —  His  System  — The 
Logos  or  Word  —  Hellenistic  Judaism  gave  its  Treasures  to  Christi- 
anity—  Judaism  reverted  to  Talmudic  Type. 

The  dispersion  (Greek  Diaspora)  Is  the  name  given 
by  the  Jews  themselves  to  the  Jev^Ish  communities  out- 
side of  Palestine.^  For  several  centuries  during  the 
time  that  Judaism  was  developing  some  of  Its  most  dis- 
tinguishing characteristics,  large  numbers  of  Jews  lived 
in  widely  separated  places  In  contact  with  non-Jewish 
peoples.  This  condition  exposed  them  to  Influences 
widely  different  from  those  that  were  felt  in  Palestine. 
The  Influences  that  affected  the  dispersion  were  not 
homogeneous,  so  that  although  contact  with  foreigners 
tended  to  broaden  the  Jewish  point  of  view,  the  scat- 
tered Jews  presented  widely  different  forms  of  thought. 
It  Is  uncertain  when  the  dispersion  began.  It  would 
seem  from  II  Kings  20:  34  that  a  Hebrew  colony  was 
established  In  Damascus  In  the  reign  of  Ahab.     Perhaps 

1  See  II  Mace.  1:27;  John  7:35;  James  1:1;  I  Pet.  1:1. 

263 


264  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

David  and  Solomon  had,  through  their  friendly  rela- 
tions with  Phoenicia,  established  similar  colonies  there. 
Tlglath-plleser  IV  (745-72?  b.  c.)  carried  many  Israel- 
ites captive  to  Assyria   (II  Kings  15:  29),  and  Sargon 
In  722  B.  c.  transported  27,290  ^  people  from  Samaria 
and  settled  them  in  Mesopotamia  and  Media  (II  Kings 
17:  6).2     All  this  was,  however,  before  the  Deuteron- 
omlc  reform,  and  it  is  not  certain  that  Hebrews  who 
were   removed   from   their   kindred   at   this   time    ever 
identified  themselves  with  the  type  of  religion  that  pre- 
vailed after  the  reign  of  king  Joslah.     It  is  probable 
that   such  communities,   though  they  maintained   their 
identity  for  a  time,   were  ultimately   absorbed  by  the 
peoples  among  whom  they  dwelt. 

The  real  dispersion  began  when  in  597  and  586  Neb- 
uchadnezzar transported  to  Babylonia  the  most  pros- 
perous and  Influential  of  the  Judean  population  (II 
Kings  24:  12-16;  25:  11;  Jer.   52:  15). 

Perhaps  as  many  as  50,000  people  were  transferred 
to  Babylonia,  and  Jewish  communities  were  formed  at 
various  points  in  that  country.  One  was  at  Tell-abid; 
of  this  Ezeklel  was  a  member  (Ezeklel  3-  ^S);  an- 
other was  at  Casiphla  (Ezra  8:  17).  In  these  Bab- 
ylonian colonies  the  Jewish  religion  was  not  only  mam- 
talned,  but  enthusiastically  adhered  to  and  developed. 
There  Ezeklel  uttered  his  prophecies,  and  proposed  his 

1  Sargon  so  states;  see  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  2nd 
ed.,  Philadelphia,  1917,  p.  370- 

2  Ibid.,  pp.  450-452. 


THE  JEWISH   DISPERSION  265 

reform  of  the  priesthood  and  the  ritual;  legislators  like 
Ezra  developed  Ezeklel's  thought  and  elaborated  the 
priestly  laws.  Babylonia  was  much  better  suited  to 
business  than  Jerusalem.  The  Jews  resident  In  Bab- 
ylonia represented  the  most  forceful  and  enterprising 
elements  of  the  nation.  It  was  because  they  had  pos- 
sessed these  qualities  that  Nebuchadnezzar  had  trans- 
ported them;  their  Initiative  had  made  him  afraid  to 
leave  them  behind.  It  Is  not  strange,  therefore,  that 
they  became  rich.  More  loyal,  probably,  to  the  na- 
tional religion  than  the  peasantry  that  remained  in  Pal- 
estine, the  "  Captivity  "  of  Babylon  exerted  an  enor- 
mous influence  on  the  reorganization  of  the  Jewish  com- 
munity in  the  post-exilic  time.  Babylonian  business 
documents  bear  witness  to  the  participation  of  large 
numbers  of  Jews  in  business,  and  the  Bible  bears  wit- 
ness to  their  liberality  in  aiding  their  poorer  brethren 
at  home  (Zech.  6:10,  11).  In  things  temporal  as 
well  as  in  religious  Ideals  the  Babylonian  Jews  made 
large  contributions  to  the  life  of  their  kindred  in  Pal- 
estine. In  reality  Babylonia  became  the  great  centre 
of  Jewish  Pharisaism  and  for  fifteen  centuries  exerted 
an  Influence  on  the  Judaism  of  the  world  of  an  extraor- 
dinary character.  Not  only  Ezra,  but  HlUel  was  a  gift 
of  Babylonian  Judaism,  and  Hlllel  was  one  of  the  ear- 
liest exponents  of  that  oral  law  that  ultimately  crystal- 
lized into  the  Mlshna  and  Talmud.  The  Talmud  in  its 
most  widely  used  form  was  compiled  in  Babylonia,  and 
the   decisions  of  the  Babylonian  Geonlm  were  widely 


266  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

accepted  In  Europe  even  after  the  Talmudic  period  had 
passed.  Indeed  It  was  not  until  the  overrunning  of 
Babylonia  by  the  Seljuk  Turks  drove  the  Babylonian 
scholars  to  Egypt  and  Spain  that  Jewish  learning  as- 
sumed In  those  countries  Its  really  brilliant  phase.  The 
influence  of  the  Babylonian  group  Is  profoundly  felt  In 
Judaism  even  to  the  present  time. 

Other  colonies  of  Jews  were  established  In  Egypt. 
In  B.  c.  608  Necho  took  Jehoahaz  and  probably  others 
to  Egypt  (II  Kings  23:34).  According  to  Jeremiah 
44:  I  colonies  of  Jews  were  living  at  Memphis,  MIgdol, 
Tahpanhes,  and  Pathros  In  Egypt.  When  some  of 
these  colonists  went  thither  we  have  no  means  of 
knowing  except  that  one  group  of  Jews  fled  thither  In 
586  B.  c.  (II  Kings  25  :  26) .  This  was  the  colony  that 
settled  at  Tahpanhes  (Jer.  43:7).  Of  greater  Inter- 
est than  any  of  these  Is  a  colony  of  Jews  that  settled 
at  some  time  on  the  Island  of  Elephantine  In  the  first 
cataract  of  the  Nile. 

The  Importance  of  this  colony  Is  due  to  the  fact  that 
papyri,  found  In  recent  years  on  the  Island  where  they 
lived,  reveal  many  details  of  their  life.  In  these  docu- 
ments, written  between  497  and  400  B.  c.^  we  see  He- 
brews In  the  fifth  century  before  Christ  buying,  selling, 
marrying  and  giving  In  marriage.  The  documents  af- 
ford us  unexpected  Insight  Into  their  religion.  Strange 
to  say  there  was  a  Jewish  temple  at  Elephantine;  It  had 
been  built  before  Cambyses  conquered  Egypt  In  525 
B.  c;  In  411  B.  c.  an  enemy  of  the  Jews  had  destroyed 


THE  JEWISH  DISPERSION  267 

it,  and  in  408  B.  c.  they  appealed  to  have  it  rebuilt, — 
a  request  which  was  granted.^ 

It  has  been  conjectured  that  this  colony,  connected  as 
it  was  with  a  fortress,  was  placed  at  this  point  by 
Psamettik  II,  king  of  Egypt  593-588  B.  c,  as  an  out- 
post against  the  Nubians.^  While  this  theory  cannot 
be  confirmed  it  seems  quite  probable.  The  temple  at 
Elephantine  appears  to  have  been  built  after  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Deuteronomic  law  in  the  year  621  b.  c,  for 
in  the  enumeration  of  its  various  parts  there  is  no  men- 
tion of  the  "  pillars  "  so  often  denounced  in  Deuteron- 
omy. As  this  law  provides  that  there  should  be  but 
one  sanctuary,  it  has  been  plausibly  conjectured  that  the 
temple  at  Elephantine  was  constructed  after  the  de- 
struction of  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  in  586  B.  c.^  In 
this  temple  in  the  land  of  Egypt  Yahweh  was  worshipped 
under  the  name  Yahu  or  Yaho.  The  members  of  this 
Egyptian  colony  were  loyal  to  their  religion  and  to 
their  race  as  many  passages  in  the  papyri  prove.  In 
some  respects  they  modified  by  private  agreement  the 
provisions  of  the  Deuteronomic  law.  For  example,  ac- 
cording to  Deut.  24:  I  if.  a  Jewish  husband  may  divorce 
a  wife,  but  no  law  provides  that  a  wife  may  divorce 
a  husband.  Nevertheless  a  marriage  contract  from 
the    colony    at    Elephantine    provides    that    the    bride, 

1  See   Barton,  Archaeology   and  the  Bible,  Philadelphia,   1917,   Pt.    II, 
ch.  xix. 

2  See  Herodotus,  II,  161. 

3  Cf.   H.   Anneler,   Zur   Geschichte  der  Juden  von  Elephantine,   Bern, 
1912,  p.  104  flF. 


268  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

Miphtahyah  may  stand  up  In  the  congregation  and  say 
"  I  divorce  Ashor,  my  husband."  ^  Of  course  Ashor 
is  given  the  right  to  treat  his  wife  In  the  same  way, 
but  the  significant  thing  Is  that  the  woman  exacted  by 
agreement,  what  the  law  did  not  allow  her.  Another 
letter  dated  In  the  year  419  B.  c.  Is  thought  to  Inform 
us  of  the  way  the  Jews  at  Elephantine  received  Infor- 
mation as  to  the  provisions  of  the  priestly  code  concern- 
ing the  manner  of  observing  the  Passover.  It  has  also 
been  thought  that  the  documents  reveal  an  Increasing 
dislike  of  the  Jews  on  the  part  of  the  Egyptians  In 
consequence  of  the  new  excluslveness  which  the  priestly 
laws  Imposed  upon  them.  Be  this  as  It  may,  the  Ele- 
phantine section  of  the  dispersion  appears  to  have  been 
composed  of  earnest  Jews,  eager  In  most  things  to  ob- 
serve the  laws  of  their  religion.  If  the  founders  of  the 
temple  at  Elephantine  had  no  thought  of  violating  the 
law  of  Deuteronomy,  having  erected  their  temple  when 
that  at  Jerusalem  was  In  ruins,  their  descendants  clung 
passionately  to  the  possession  of  their  place  of  worship 
after  the  one  at  Jerusalem  had  been  rebuilt.  This  was 
most  natural.  Long  associations  aided  them  In  regard- 
ing the  spot  as  sacred  to  Yahweh,  and  such  associations 
are  not  easily  set  aside.  Then,  too,  they  might  natu- 
rally reason  that.  If  the  erection  of  their  temple  was  ever 
right,  changes  of  conditions  at  Jerusalem  could  not  make 
It  wrong.     At  all  events  they  persisted  In  maintaining  It. 

1  See  Sayce  and  Cowley,  Aramaic  Papyri  discovered  at  Assuan,  Lon- 
don, 1906,  p.  43. 


THE  JEWISH   DISPERSION  269 

While  speaking  of  this  colony  it  is  most  appropriate 
to  describe  a  later  Jewish  migration  to  Egypt  which 
produced  another  temple.  When  Jonathan  the  Macca- 
bee  was  made  high  priest  in  153  B.  c,  Onias,  the  son 
of  Onias  III,  the  deposed  high  priest,  having  fled  to 
Egypt,  obtained  a  grant  of  land  at  Leontopolis,  as  the 
ancient  city  of  Bubastis  was  then  called,  and  erected  a 
temple  to  Yahweh  there,  which  was  modelled  on  the 
temple  at  Jerusalem.^  Ptolemy  VII,  anxious  to  cement 
the  loyalty  of  the  Jews  resident  in  Egypt,  gave  Onias 
the  revenues  of  a  considerable  territory  to  support  the 
temple.  Excavation  has  within  a  few  years  brought 
this  temple  to  light,  confirming  the  statements  of  Jose- 
phus  at  many  points. ^  This  temple  at  Leontopolis  con- 
tinued to  exist  until  after  the  destruction  by  Titus  of  the 
temple  at  Jerusalem  in  the  year  70  A.  D.  The  move- 
ment headed  by  Onias  was  a  schism  due  to  personal  am- 
bition. Both  he  and  the  Jews  who  worshipped  with 
him  in  Egypt  reverenced  the  whole  Pentateuch  as 
coming  from  Moses,  but,  as  the  Maccabees  were  not  of 
the  direct  line  of  Zadok,  Onias  and  his  supporters  ap- 
parently felt  justified  in  regarding  the  Jewish  temple  as 
administered  by  them  as  a  schismatic  organization. 
This  temple  and  the  one  at  Elephantine  show  what  va- 
garies were  possible  even  among  orthodox  Jews  of  the 
dispersion. 

^  See  Josephus,  Antiquities  of  the  Jenvs,  XIII,  iii,  and  Wars  of  the 
Jeivs,  VII,  X. 

2  Cf.  G.  A.  Barton,  Archaeology  and  the  Bible,  Philadelphia,  1917, 
p.  38  flf. 


270  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

The  book  of  Tobit  furnishes  us  with  evidence  as  to 
the  religious  attitude  of  the  dispersion  in  Media.  As 
has  been  pointed  out  ah-eady  ^  the  Jews,  as  represented 
by  this  book,  appear  to  be  eager  to  observe  the  Jewish 
law,  but  were  nevertheless  influenced,  perhaps  uncon- 
sciously, by  the  Persian  customs  and  religious  ideas  of 
those  with  whom  they  daily  associated. 

By  the  Apostolic  age  the  dispersion  included  Parthia, 
Media,  Elam,  Babylonia,  Pontus,  Cappadocia,  Asia, 
Phrygia,  Pamphyha,  Egypt,  Cyrene,  Rome,  Crete,  and 
Arabia  (Acts  2:8-11). 

Such  foreign  influences  as  those  which  appear  in  the 
book  of  Tobit  appear  to  have  found  their  way  to  Pal- 
estine and  to  have  aided  in  calling  into  existence  about 
the    Maccabaean    period    the    order    of    the    E^ssenes. 
While  it  is  impossible  to  account  for  all  the  peculiarities 
of  this  sect  on  the  theory  of  Persian  influence,  the  fact 
that  they  prayed  with  their  faces  toward  the  sun,  and 
that  they  alone  of  Jews,  or,  for  that  matter,  of  Semites, 
abstained  from  marriage  and  apparently  regarded  mat- 
ter as  corrupt,  indicate  that,  among  the  foreign  influ- 
ences that  produced  the  Essenes,  Persian  ideas  were  not 
lacking.     According  to  Josephus  Essenes  existed  in  the 
time  of  Jonathan  the  Maccabee,^  and  there  were  In  the 
time  of  Christ  about  4000  of  them.^     They  were  celi- 
bates, lived  in  communities,  engaged  in  agriculture,  ab- 

1  Above,  p.  253. 

^Antiquities  of  the  Jeavs,  XIII,  v,  9.  ^ 

3  Antiquities  of  the  Jews,  XVIII,  i,  5,  and  Wars  of  the  Jews,  II,  via, 
2.     Philo  also  twice  describes  them,  confirming  Josephus. 


THE  JEWISH   DISPERSION  271 

jured  trade,  demanded  a  novitiate  of  three  years  before 
admission  to  their  order,  denied  themselves  pleasure, 
kept  themselves  pure  and  upright,  and  were  especially 
helpful  to  one  another.  Their  purity  was  both  cere- 
monial and  moral;  they  were  most  careful  about  ablu- 
tions and  kept  their  hands  clean  of  theft  and  unlawful 
gain.     They  loved  truth  and  denounced  liars. 

The  Essenes  were  In  reality  an  order  of  monks, — 
the  first  order  of  the  kind  known  to  the  Mediterranean 
world.  That  such  an  order  should  have  been  started 
among  the  practical,  family-loving  Jews  seems  inexplic- 
able apart  from  foreign  Influences.  No  such  order  is 
native  to  Persia,  and  It  has  been  plausibly  conjectured 
that  Buddhistic  influence  is  responsible  for  the  form  of 
the  organization.  Possibly  It  is  one  of  the  results  of 
the  missionary  propaganda  of  Asoka,  the  Buddhistic 
Constantine  of  India,  who  sent  Missionaries  to  several 
Hellenistic  capitals  about  260  B.  c.^  While  the  Es- 
senes held  the  body  to  be  corrupt,  they  held  to  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul.  When  released  from  the  body 
the  soul  was  supposed  to  dwell  beyond  the  ocean  In  a 
land  unvexed  by  rain,  snow,  or  oppressive  heat.  Their 
ideas  of  the  soul  and  of  immortality  have  been  thought 
to  be  borrowed  from  the  Pythagoraeans. 

Although  the  Essenes  lived  in  Palestine,  there  Is  no 
better  example  than  they  of  the  diverse  Influences  to 
which  the  dispersion  was  subjected. 

^  See  G.  A.  Barton,  The  Religions  of  the  World,  Chicago,  1917,  chap- 
ter ix,  p.  160,  and  note  3. 


272  THE   RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

The  portion  of  the  dispersion  which  is  best  known, 
and  of  which  most  people  think  when  they  hear  the 
word,  consisted  of  the  Jews  resident  in  the  many  cities 
of  the  successors  of  Alexander  the  Great.  According 
to  Josephus  Jews  followed  Alexander  to  Egypt  and 
were  given  a  quarter  of  the  city  of  Alexandria.^  This 
part  of  the  city  was  called  the  Delta  and  was  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  royal  palace.  Josephus  claims 
that  they  were  given  the  right  to  call  themselves  Mace- 
donians, i.e.,  they  were  made  citizens.  Under  the  Ptol- 
emies other  Jews  went  to  Egypt,  some  being  taken  there 
forcibly,  others  attracted  by  inducements.^  As  time 
passed  the  numbers  increased.  In  the  reign  of  Caligula 
(38-41  A.  D.)  Philo  estimated  the  number  of  Jews  in 
Egypt  at  a  million.  Josephus  also  states  that  Seleucus  I 
of  Syria  made  Jews  citizens  in  the  cities  which  he 
founded  in  Asia  and  Syria,  including  Antioch  itself.^*^ 
Some  have  doubted  his  statements,  but  the  Jews  were 
certainly  present  in  the  regions  mentioned  long  before 
the  Christian  era  in  large  numbers, —  a  fact  that  seems 
to  make  the  statement  probable. 

The  Jews  residents  in  the  Hellenistic  cities  were  com- 
pelled to  acquire  Greek  for  the  transaction  of  their 
business,  and  in  a  generation  or  two  largely  forgot  their 
Hebrew.  So  many  of  them  were  resident  in  Egypt 
that  they  soon  conceived  the  idea  of  translating  their 

1  Contra  Apion,  II,  4,  and  Wars  of  the  Jeics,  II,  xviii,  7,  8. 

2  Antiquities  of  the  Jeivs,  XII,  i,  i ;  ii,  i  ff. 

3  Antiquities  of  the  Jeivs,  XII,  iii,  i. 


THE  JEWISH   DISPERSION  273 

Scriptures  Into  the  Greek  tongue.  Legend  connects  this 
enterprise  with  the  name  of  Ptolemy  II  (Philadelphus) , 
283-247  B.  C.  Whether  the  king  had  anything  to  do 
with  the  enterprise  or  not,  scholars  agree  that  the  Pen- 
tateuch was  translated  into  Greek  in  the  third  century 
before  Christ,  and  that  the  translation  of  the  other 
Biblical  books  in  time  followed. 

This  opening  of  the  treasures  of  the  Jewish  religion 
to  the  Hellenistic  world  was  a  great  event.  Perhaps 
the  motive  that  lay  behind  It  was  not  altogether  a  self- 
ish one;  it  Is  possible  that  already  the  Ideal  set  forth 
by  the  Second  Isaiah  and  voiced  by  the  book  of  Jonah, 
(the  Ideal  of  winning  the  world  to  Judasim)  was  In 
the  minds  of  those  who  promoted  the  translation.  At 
any  rate  this  Ideal  found  expression  a  little  later  in 
many  forms  of  activity. 

One  ancient  form  of  oracle  among  the  Greeks  was 
found  In  the  supposed  sayings  of  the  Sibyl.  These  were 
treasured,  and  frequently  consulted.  They  were 
widely  Influential  outside  of  Greece.  Rome  Introduced 
them  centuries  before  Christ,  and  accorded  them  a  high 
place.  In  the  second  century  B.  c.  the  Jews  began  to 
put  their  history  Into  the  mouth  of  the  Sibyl  in  hexam- 
eter verse. 1  She  was  made  to  call  herself  a  daughter 
of  Noah,  saying  that  she  had  come  from  Babylon  and 
that  the  Greeks  had  given  her  a  false  name.  She  Is 
then  made  to  recount  the  fortunes  of  Israel,  the  glories 
of  Solomon,  and  the  various  events  of  the  national  his- 

^  Sibylline  Oracles,  Bk.  Ill,  lines  114-829. 


274  THE  RELIGION   OF  ISRAEL 

tory  down  to  about  140  b.  c.  The  Jews  are  represented 
as  God's  people,  to  whom  the  Messiah  is  promised,  and 
all  others  are  threatened  with  destruction  unless  they 
join  the  Jews  by  becoming  proselytes  and  worship  God. 
Since  everything  attributed  to  the  Sibyl  was  widely  read 
and  pondered,  these  Jewish  oracles  exerted  a  profound 

influence. 

Another  instrument  that  was  employed  for  the  con- 
version of  the  Gentile  world  to  Judaism  was  the  drama. 
We  learn  from  Clement  of  Alexandria  ^  and  Eusebius 
that  a  Jewish  tragedian  named  Ezekiel  wrote  a  play 
called   "The   Exodus"    in   which   he   dramatized  that 
great  event  in  Biblical  history.     Eusebius  quotes  a  num- 
ber of  extracts  from  the  play.     These  include  a  solilo- 
quy of  Moses  after  the  murder  of  the  Egyptian  as  de- 
scribed in  Exodus  2,  the  meeting  of  Moses  with  the 
seven  daughters  of  Jethro,   and  his  marriage  to  Zip- 
porah.     Then   follows   the   narration  by   Moses   of   a 
dream  which  his  father-in-law  interpreted  to  mean  that 
Moses  would  one  day  be  exalted  to  high  station  and 
would  understand  things  both  past  and  to  come.     An- 
other extract  represents  God  as  speaking  unseen  from 
the  burning  bush;  in  another  God  gives  directions  con- 
cerning the  exodus  and  the  passover.     In  a  later  scene 
an  Egyptian  messenger  enters  and  recounts  the  disaster 
at  the    Red   Sea,   while   the   last   excerpt   contains   the 

1  Stromata,  I,  23,  i55;  Pmeparaiio  Evangelica,  IX,  28,  29;  cf.  Schurer, 
Geschichte  des  judischen  Volkes  in  zeitaUer  Jesii  ChnsH,  4te  Aut.,  Leip- 
sig,  1909,  III,  500  ff. 


THE  JEWISH  DISPERSION  275 

speech  of  a  messenger  who  had  been  with  Moses  in 
advance  of  the  host,  and  who  tells  how  Moses  had 
found  a  good  camping-place  at  Elim,  where  were  twelve 
springs  and  seventy  palm  trees.  The  whole  is  based 
on  Biblical  material.  The  poetry,  however,  is  laboured 
and  dull.  This  Ezekiel  must  have  had  predecessors 
and  successors  in  his  art,  though  their  works  have  not 
survived. 

Such  plays,  like  the  Sibylline  oracles,  were  intended 
to  familiarize  the  Gentile  world  with  the  facts  of  Jewish 
history  and  with  the  reality  of  God's  choice  of  the  Jew- 
ish people.  A  part  of  the  design  was  to  make  the  Gen- 
tiles desire  to  throw  in  their  lot  with  Israel,  that  they 
might  gain  a  share  in  her  religious  privileges.  It  was 
a  part  of  that  movement  that  Jesus  characterized  as 
compassing  ''  sea  and  land  to  make  one  proselyte  " 
(Matt.  23:  15).  The  movement  had,  for  a  time,  con- 
siderable success,  but  the  necessity  of  circumcision  and 
of  keeping  the  Jewish  law  was  a  handicap  which  Chris- 
tianity and  the  cults  that  flourished  in  the  early  days  of 
the  Roman  empire  did  not  have,  so  that  Judaism  ulti- 
mately fell  behind  in  the  competition. 

While  the  Judaism  of  the  dispersion  was  earnestly 
trying  to  win  the  Gentile  world,  she  was  herself  pro- 
foundly influenced  by  that  world.  This  Influence,  which 
must  have  been  felt  in  ways  which  we  cannot  now  de- 
tect, was  especially  noticeable  upon  Jewish  exegesis  and 
Jewish  thought.  Before  the  beginning  of  the  Christian 
era  Hellenistic  students  of  Homer  had  Invented  the  al- 


276  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

legorlcal  method  of  interpretation  in  order  to  maintain 
their  interest  in  the  ancient  writings.  To  men  who  val- 
ued philosophical  and  ethical  ideas  it  seemed  impossi- 
ble that  venerable  Homer  should  sing  of  how  Agamem- 
non and  Achilles  slugged  each  other.  Such  exploits 
of  physical  strength  were  unworthy  the  lyre  of  the  im- 
mortal poet.  There  must  be,  they  felt,  some  deeper 
meaning;  so  they  claimed  that  the  physical  encounters 
were  mere  allegory;  that  the  poet  really  sang  of  the 
contest  of  truth  with  falsehood,  of  light  with  darkness, 
of  virtue  with  vice.  Such  a  method  enabled  a  reader 
to  find  his  own  best  thoughts  in  any  narrative.  Into 
any  old  story,  however  crass,  he  could  read  any  lofty 
philosophy  which  pleased  him.  It  was  a  method  that 
enabled  every  generation  to  bring  up  to  date  all  the 
literature  of  the  past  without  the  trouble  of  rewriting  it, 
and  it  became  immensely  popular. 

The  Apostle  Paul,  himself  a  product  of  the  disper- 
sion, had  imbibed  the  allegorical  method  and,  in  order 
to  read  Christian  meanings  into  the  Old  Testament 
stories  he  employs  it  more  than  once  (see  Gal.  4:21- 
3 1 ;  I  Cor.  10 :  1-4) .  Through  Paul  the  method  passed 
into  use  in  the  Christian  Church,  where  it  has  persisted 
until  our  own  time.  By  this  method  the  whole  sacri- 
ficial theology  of  evangelical  Christianity  is  found  by 
some  in  the  book  of  Leviticus.  This  time-honoured 
method  of  interpretation  with  all  its  vagaries  Christian- 
ity inherited  from  the  dispersion. 

More  definite,  though  perhaps  not  more  far-reach- 


THE  JEWISH   DISPERSION  277 

ing  in  its  results,  was  the  influence  of  Greek  philosophy 
upon    certain    Hebrew   minds.     The    ground    for    this 
influence  was  prepared  by  the  "  wisdom  literature  "  of 
the   Hebrew   sages   which   has   been    already   treated.^ 
Indeed  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  the  last  of  the  books 
included  in  that  treatment,  is  the  earliest  work  in  which 
the  influence  of  Greek  philosophic  thought  can  be  clearly 
discerned.     It  is  conceded  that  the  author  of  Wisdom 
was  a  Jew  resident  in  Egypt,  and  it  is  probable  that  he 
wrote  in  the  first  century  before  Christ.     He  is  a  true 
Jew  and  a  worthy  successor  of  the  earlier  sages,  but 
contact  with  the  Greeks  had  enabled  him  to  view  the 
world  as  an  ordered  cosmos  beautifully  and  logically 
arranged.     This  view  he  had  imbibed  from  the  Platon- 
ists  or  the  Stoics  or  both.     He  had  also  accepted  the 
Platonic  doctrine  of  the  pre-existence  of  the  soul  (Wis- 
dom 8  :  19,  20) .     He  had  not,  however,  been  influenced 
by  the  Stoic  doctrine  that  the  Logos  or  Reason  had  given 
the  universe  its  beautiful  order.     In  his  system  the  di- 
vine agent  in  the  creation  was  Wisdom,  as  in  the  older 
book    of    Proverbs.     That    God    manifested    himself 
through  an  intermediate  agency,  he,  with  the  Stoics,  be- 
lieved; but  that  agency  was  still  Wisdom.     This  func- 
tion of  Wisdom  he  does  not  explain;  he  takes  it  for 
granted. 

In  the  works  of  Philo,  an  Alexandrian  Jew  who  died 
about  40  A.  D.,  the  philosophical  influences  of  Hellen- 
ism  found  their  noblest  Jewish  exponent.     Philo,   al- 

1  In  chapter  xiii. 


278  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

though  he  was  more  profoundly  Influenced  by  philoso- 
phy than  the  author  of  Wisdom,  was  In  outward  form 
not  so  independent.  The  author  of  Wisdom  had,  like 
the  older  sages,  written  his  thoughts  in  a  way  to  make 
Wisdom  speak  her  own  message;  Philo  grounds  his 
teaching  on  the  Pentateuch,  and,  by  means  of  allegorical 
interpretation,  reads  into  the  text  of  Scripture  the  doc- 
trines he  would  teach. 

The  Influence  of  Greek  Philosophy  produced  a  note- 
worthy effect  upon  Philo's  conception  of  God.  Among 
Palestinian  Jews,  and  probably  among  the  great  major- 
ity o'f  Jews  everywhere,  it  was  customary  to  think  of  God 
as  a  magnified  man.  This  conception  underwent  a 
searching  examination  at  the  hands  of  Philo;  it  was  dis- 
carded and  replaced  by  one  more  in  accord  with  philo- 
sophic thought.  While  he  recognized  that  there  is  a 
certain  analogy  between  God  and  man,  Philo  regarded 
God  as  so  unlike  man  that  our  language  is  inadequate 
to  describe  him.  He  held  to  God's  personality,  but  held 
that  his  essence  Is  unknown.  One  result  of  the  inscru- 
table character  of  God  is  his  namelessness.  This  Philo 
Inferred  from  Exodus  3:14:  "  I  am  that  I  am." 
Moses  had  asked  for  God's  name;  God  replied,  says 
Philo,  merely  with  a  statement  that  he  is  the  self-exist- 
ent One.  Philo  held  that  God  is  without  qualities,  that 
he  is  external,  incorruptible,  that  he  is  a  unity,  that  he  Is 
light,  that  he  is  omnipresent,  omniscient,  and  omnipo- 
tent, that  he  Is  perfection,  that  he  is  free  from  passion 
and  sin,  that  he  is  himself  rest  and  peace.     Philo  rec- 


THE  JEWISH  DISPERSION 


279 


ognized  that  the  world  is  full  of  toil  and  pain,  but  he 
found,  like  Plato,  an  evidence  in  this  of  God's  goodness. 
God  had  not  begrudged  to  imperfect  matter  something 
of  his  own  nature,  and  the  struggle  after  this  was  the 
cause  of  earth's  agony.  But  even  this  the  providence 
of  God  guides.  About  God,  and  above  the  angels  in 
whom  Philo  implicitly  believed,  he  recognized  the  ex- 
istence of  numerous  divine  powers.  These  powers  cor- 
respond in  Philo's  system  to  Plato's  archetypal  ideas. 
They  are  such  things  as  piety,  holiness,  natural  philos- 
ophy, meteorology,  ethics,  polity,  economy,  regal,  legis- 
lative, and  innumerable  other  powers.  These  powers 
were  not  conceived  to  be  descended  one  from  another 
as  in  later  Gnostic  systems,  but  were  all  regarded  as 
equally  related  to  God. 

First  and  greatest  of  all  these  powers  was  the  Logos. 
In  his  idea  of  the  Logos  Philo  betrays  Stoic  influence  as 
the  author  of  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon  had  not.  He 
says :  ''  The  Logos  of  God  also  is  above  all  the  cosmos, 
the  oldest  and  most  generic  of  the  things  that  have 
come  into  being."  ^  In  another  place  he  states  "  God 
is  the  most  generic  thing,  and  the  Logos  is  second." 
The  Logos  was  said  to  be  the  all-beautiful  pattern  of 
the  human  mind,  and  to  be  better  than  beauty  itself: 
it  is  equated  with  the  moral  law;  it  is  declared  to  be 
the  bond  of  the  universe.  Philo  found  in  man  a  two- 
fold reason,  the  inward  and  the  uttered.  He  declares 
several  times  that  the  divine  Logos  is  two-fold,  but  does 

1  James  Drummond,  Pliilo  Judaeus,  London,  1888,  Vol.  II,  p.  i6o. 


28o  THE  RELIGION   OF   ISRAEL 

not  clearly  define  wherein  Its  duality  consists.  The  Lo- 
gos Is  declared  to  be  God's  reason,  God's  son,  God's 
image,  to  be  eternal;  it  mediates  between  God  and 
creation;  it  constitutes  the  ground  that  the  propitious 
God  will  never  overlook  his  own  work.^  Philo  at  least 
once  calls  the  Father  the  first  God,  and  speaks  of  the 
second  God,  the  Logos.^  Sometimes  Philo  seems  to 
identify  Logos  and  Wisdom;  sometimes,  to  distinguish 
one  from  the  other.  Opinions  differ  as  to  why  he  did 
this,  but  on  the  whole  he  appears  to  have  employed 
Wisdom  where  the  divine  activity  was  brought  into 
personal  relations  with  men.^  The  Logos  in  his  view 
was  personal  and  appeared  to  Hagar,  to  Jacob,  and  to 
Moses. 

Like  the  philosopher  that  he  was  Philo  believed  sin 
to  be  ignorance  and  error.  It  sprang  from  the  body 
and  its  passions.  It  was  to  be  put  away  by  following 
the  dictates  of  the  divine  Reason;  and  these  dictates 
Philo  probably  found  in  the  Scriptures.  Thus  he 
grafted  philosophy  on  to  the  ceremonial  of  Judaism, 
and  Interpreted  Its  ceremonial  in  the  light  of  Platonic 
and  Stoic  thought. 

While  Philo,  In  consequence  of  his  writings,  is  the 
best  example  of  the  influence  of  Hellenism  upon  Juda- 
ism, there  is  evidence  that  he  was  not  the  only  Jew 
that  experienced  this  influence.     St.  Paul  came  of  the 

1  Drummond,  Ibid.,  191. 

2  Drummond,  Ibid.,  197. 

3  Drummond,  Ibid.,  212. 


THE  JEWISH   DISPERSION  28 1 

dispersion.  In  the  course  of  his  career  contact  with 
the  Greeks  led  him  to  place  emphasis  upon  the  Wisdom 
of  Israel's  sages.  Wisdom  had  been  personified  so  as 
to  become  almost  a  part  of  God;  ^  Paul  declared  Christ 
to  be  the  Wisdom  of  God  (i  Cor.  1:30).  Later  In 
his  career,  when  called  upon  to  combat  the  Ideas  of  the 
Gnostics,  Paul  assigns  to  Christ  much  the  same  func- 
tions as  Phllo  had  assigned  to  the  Logos.  He  Is  the 
Image  of  God;  the  agency  by  which  the  worlds  were 
made;  the  vitalizing  energy  which  holds  the  universe 
together  (Col.  1:15-17).  At  the  end  of  the  first 
Christian  century  the  author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  took 
up  and  elaborated  the  Pauline  Idea,  and  he  also  adopted 
Phllo's  terminology.  "  In  the  beginning  was  the  Logos 
and  the  Logos  was  with  God  and  the  Logos  was  divine. 
All  things  were  made  by  him"  (John  i :  i,  2).  It  was 
thus  that  the  best  fruits  of  the  marriage  of  Greek  phi- 
losophy with  the  Jewish  faith  passed  Into  Christianity. 
Through  Paul  and  the  Fourth  Gospel  they  shaped  the 
Christian  conception  of  Christ  and  of  God. 

Probably  It  was  because  of  the  adoption  of  this  point 
of  view  by  Christians  that  Hellenism  left  no  permanent 
mark  upon  Judaism.  The  dispersion  had  all  along  held 
firmly  to  the  forms  of  their  ancestral  faith.  Whatever 
variations  local  influences,  whether  Egyptian,  Persian, 
or  Hellenistic  had  produced  In  their  theories,  syna- 
gogues were  established  wherever  any  number  of  Jews 
resided,  and  the  law  was  read  and  expounded.     As  close 

1  Prov.  8:  29-31. 


282  THE  RELIGION  OF  ISRAEL 

a  connection  as  possible  was  maintained  with  Jerusalem. 
Many  went  each  year  to  the  great  festivals  (Acts  2 : 
8— 11),  and  probably  many  others  besides  Saul  of  Tar- 
sus were  sent  from  the  various  cities  of  the  dispersion 
to  be  educated  in  Jerusalem.  It  was  this  that  through- 
out the  centuries  kept  the  Jews  loyal  to  their  law,  the 
unifying  instrument  of  the  Jewish  faith.  When,  there- 
fore, Christianity  broke  away  from  the  synagogue  and 
became  a  hated  rival  of  Judaism  there  was  a  natural 
reaction  from  all  that  which  Christianity  had  appropri- 
ated. The  Septuagint  had  become  the  Christian  Bible, 
so  the  Versions  of  Aquila  and  Theodotion  were  called 
into  existence  for  the  use  of  Greek-speaking  Jews.  The 
philosophic  conceptions  of  Hellenistic  Judaism  had  been 
appropriated  by  Christianity;  there  was  accordingly  a 
reaction  toward  the  oral  law,  and  in  the  centuries  that 
followed  the  Talmud  shaped  Judaism.  Babylonia,  not 
Alexandria,  was  mistress  of  the  future  of  Jewry.^ 

Nevertheless  the  fruits  of  Hellenism  were  not  lost; 
they  were  simply  poured  into  the  Christian  treasury. 
As  the  prophets  and  the  apocalyptists  had  prepared  the 
way  for  the  Christ,  so  Hellenistic  Judaism  prepared  the 
way  for  that  understanding  of  his  person  that  has  made 
Christianity  what  it  is. 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  The  Babylonian  Captivity  and  its  Influence;  cf.  **  Captiv- 
ity," in  Hastings  Dictionary  of  the  Bible  and  in  the  Jewish  En- 

1  Cf.  G.  A.  Barton,  The  Religions  of  the  World,  Chicago,  1917,  ch.  v. 


THE  JEWISH   DISPERSION  283 

cyclopedia^  Vol.    Ill ;  also  G.  A.  Barton,  Religions  of  the  World, 
Chicago,  1916,  chapter  v,  ^^  93,  97-101. 

2.  The  Jewish  Colony  at  Elephantine;  cf.  S.  A.  Cook,  **  The 
Significance  of  the  Elephantine  Papyri  for  the  History  of  the 
Hebrew  Religion,"  in  the  American  Journal  of  Theology,  XIX 
(July,   1915),  pp.  346-382. 

3.  The  Essenes;  cf.  "  Essenes,"  in  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the 
Bible,  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  Encyclopaedia 
Biblica,  and  the  Jewish  Encyclopedia. 

4.  The  Jewish  Propaganda;  cf.  O.  Thatcher,  The  Apostolic 
Church,  Boston,  1893,  chapter  2. 

5.  Philo  and  his  Thought;  cf.  James  Drummond,  Philo  Ju- 
daeus  or  the  Jewish  Alexandrian  Philosophy,  London,  1888, 
Vol.  II,  or  "  Philo  "  in  the  Jewish  Encyclopedia. 


INDEX 


Aaron,   58 

Abraham,  35  ff.,  76;  in  a  Baby- 
lonian  document,   37  f. 

Addis,  W.  E.,  73,   140 

Ahab,   87,   91 

Ahikar,   story  of,  245 

Alexander,   the   Great,   145 

Allegorical    interpretation,    273  ff. 

Amos,  65,  94,  97  f. 

Angel  of  Yahweh,  173  ff. 

Angels,  functions  of,  182;  in 
apocryphal     literature,     187  ff. 

Animal  sacrifice,   10,  80 

Anneler,  H.,  267 

Antiochus    Epiphanes,    148  ff. 

Apocalypse,   nature  of,  248 

Apocalypses,  pseudepigraphs,  249 ; 
sources  of,  251  ff.;  their  philos- 
ophy of  the  world,  252 

Arabia,  3;  influence  of  on  Semi- 
tic religion,  4  f. 

Archangels,    182  f.,    i88 

Ark  of  Yahweh,  69  f. 

Arnold,  W.  R.,  136 

Ashera,  a  goddess,  53 

Ashera,  a  post,  61 

Asheras,   8,   117 

Asher,  tribe  of,   33  f.,  45 

Ashtart,  6 

Asmodaeus,    193 

Asmonaean  kings,  151,  257 

Atonement,   day  of,   171  f. 

Azazel,  171,  186 

Baal,   78  f. 
Bade,  W.  F.,  93 
Baentsch,  B.,  96 
Batten,  L.  W.,  136 
Beliar,   194 


285 


Benjamin,  tribe  of,  27 

Bennett,   W.   H.,   50 

Bewer,   J.  A.,   237,   238 

Blood   revenge,    13  f. 

Bloomfield,    M.,    n 

Breasted,  J.  H.,  2,  23,  29,  39,  46, 

84,  95,  216,  234 
Briggs,  C.  A.,  35,  66 
Brown,  F.,  35 
Budde,  K.,  73,  88,  140 
Buddhism,    influence    of,    271 

Canaan,  conquest  of,  75 

Captivity,  Babylonian,  264  ff.;  in- 
fluence of,   265  ff.,   282 

Carpenter,  J.  E.,  41,  50 

Charles,  R.  H.,  233,  247,  253,  261 

Chasidim,  149,   150,   152  f. 

Cherubim,    178 

Cheyne,  T.  K.,  103 

Circumcision,   8  f.,   62 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  274 

Clue,    historical,   23 

Cook,  S.  A.,  283 

Corner,  law  of,  155  f. 

Cornill,  C.  H.,  21 

Covenant  at  Horeb,  58  ff. ;  made 
ethical  development  possible, 
63  f . ;  reinterpretations  of,  64  f., 
98  f. 

Cowley,  A.  E.,  268 

Curtis,  S.  I.,  4,  17 

Cyrus,  the  Great,  128  f.;  allows 
freedom  to  captives,  129 

Dalman,  G.,  262 
Damascus,   264 
Daniel,  book  of,  250,  255 
Dan,  shrine  of,  77 


:86 


INDEX 


Dan,  tribe  of,  33 

Davenport,  F.  M.,  15,  83 

Decalogue  of  J,  65  flr.,  90;  ethi- 
cal  decalogue,   68  ff.,   90 

Dedication,   feast  of,    149 

Deities  confined  to  localities,  4 

Demons  in  pre-exilic  literature, 
179;  after  exile,  183;  in  apoc- 
ryphal   literature,  190  ff. 

Deuteronomic  code,  117  f-,  169; 
finding  of,   119  f. 

Deuteronomic  view  of  the  Cove- 
nant, 64  f. 

Deuteronomy,   26,  267 

Dispersion,   263  ff. 

Documents  of  the  Hexateuch, 
20 

Drama  of  the  Exodus,   274 

Driver,   S.   R.,   21,   35,  41,    126 

Drummond,   J.,  279,   280,  283 

Duhm,   B.,    103,    109 

Dumuzi,   or  Tammuz,   6,   7 

Ecclesiastes,  religion  of,  226  ff. 
Ecclesiasticus,   religion   of,   229  ff. 
E    Document,    20,   41,    64,   78,    89, 

1 60,    169,   177 
Egypt,  2,  3,  24,  56  ff.,  136,  226  ff., 

272  ff. 
Elephantine,   Jews  of,   142,   266  ff. 
Elephantine    papyri,    136 
Eli,  161 

Elijah,   87  ff.,  91 
Elisha,  16,  89 
Elohim,  44,   56 
Elyon,  54 

Enoch,  book  of,  253  ff. 
Enoch-parables,  257  ff. 
Ephraim,  tribe  of,  27 
Erman,  A.,  2 
Esau,  34 
Esdras  II,  250 
Essenes,  270  ff. 
Esther,  religion  of,  239  ff. 
Evolution,   I 


Ezekiel,    125  ff.,    127  ff.,    164  ff. 
Ezra,   136,   137,   138,  265 

Festivals  of  Yahweh,  80  ff.,  169  ff. 
Foreign  marriages,  236  f. 
Fullerton,  K.,  106,  113 
Future  life  in  Job,  222;  in  Eccle- 
siastes, 227;  in  Daniel,  257 


Gabriel,   183,   188 
Gad,   a   god,   53 
Gad,   a  tribe,  33 
Gardiner,    A.,    104,    216 
Gaster,  M.,  243 
Gemara,  156 
Gezer,   shrine   at,   76 
Giesebrecht,   F.,   103,    104 
Gil  gals,  8 

Gordon,  G.  A.,  223 
Gray,  G.  B.,  21,  109,  113 
Gressmann,  H.,  103 
Guthe,  H.,  103 

Habiru-Hebrews,   44 

Hackmann,    H.,    103 

Haggai,   132 

Hamites,   2  ff.,   25 

Hammurapi,  6;  code  of,  79. 

Harford-Battersby,    G.,   41,    50 

Harris,  J.  R.,  245 

Haupt,  P.,  50 

Hebrews,  Semites,  i  f. ;   descended 

from  Habiru,  44;  in  Egypt,  46 
Hebron,  167;  shrine  at,  76 
Hellenism,    influence    of,    281 
Herem,  or  ban,  15  f. 
Herodotus,  107,  120,  121,  240,  267 
Hezekiah,   107,    109,   iii 
Hierodouloi,  7 
Higher  criticism,  19  ff. 
High  places,  85  f. 
High  place  at  Shechem,  75  f. 
High    priest,    162,    165  f. 
Hillel,   154,   156,  265 


INDEX 


287 


Historical    value    of    early    narra- 
tives,   21  ff. ;    clue    to,    23  f. 
Holiness  code,   133  f.,   170 
Horeb,  58  ff. 
Hosea,  65,  94,  98  f. 
Huldah,   119 
Human  sacrifices,  12  f.,  82  ff. 

Idols,  92 

Images,  81  f.,  92 

Ingathering-festival,    13 

Isaiah,    94,    loi  ff.,    106,    107,    io8, 

HI,   113,   115 
Isaiah    Second,   28  f. 
Isaiah  Third,  133 
Israel,  origin  of,  43  ff. 
Ishtar,  goddess,  7 

Jacob-el,   28,   35 

Jacob,  sons  of,  26  f. 

Jastrow,  M.  Jr.,  85,  93 

J  Document,  20,  25,  40,  44,  64,  174 

Jensen,  P.,  19,  36 

Jeremiah,  65,   120,  121,  122  ff. 

Jerusalem,    shrine    of,    77,    107  f., 

HI,    114  f. 

Jesus  of  Nazareth,  131,  260 

Jethro,    58  ff. 

Jezebel,  87,  91 

Job,   religion  of,  217  ff. 

Jonah,  religion  of,  237  ff.;  mis- 
sionary tract,  239 

Jonathan   Maccabaeus,    150,    166 

Joseph,  tribes  of,  29 ;  stories  of, 
30  ff. 

Joseph-el,  28 

Josephus,  Flavins,  144,  240,  269, 
270,  272 

Joshua,  50 

Josiah,   119  ff. 

Jubilees,  book  of,   250 

Judas   Maccabaeus,    149 

Judith,  religion  of,  243  f, 

Kadesh,  47  f, 


Kenite-Midianites,  58,  71 
Kenite  theory  of  Yahweh,   57  ff. 
Kittel,  R.,  79 

Knowledge,   expansion   of,    18 
Kyle,  M.  G.,  42 

Langdon,  S.,  215 

Leah-tribes,    27;    at    Kadesh,    48; 

enter   Palestine    from   south,    49, 

56,  70  ff. 
Levi,   tribe  of,   158  f. 
Leviathan,   185  f. 
Levites,  origin  of,    159  ff.;   created 

as  a  class  by  Ezekiel,  80,  128  f. ; 

164  f. 
Levitical  cities,  166  f. 
Levitical    laws,    20,    141 ;    praised 

in  Psalter,    142  ff. 
Lex  talionis,  13  f. 
Lilith,   184 
Logos   doctrine,  279 


Macalister,   R.  A.   S.,   76,   112 

Maccabees,    146  ff. 

McFadyen,  J.   E.,   21,    93 

Malachi,    141  f. 

Manasseh,  king  of  Judah,  10,  107, 

114  f.,   119 
Manasseh,   tribe  of,   27  f. 
Marti,   K.,    103,    157 
Mattathias,    148  f. 
Maweth  or  Moth,  54 
Meissner,  B.,  35 
Meni,   a   goddess,    54 
Merneptah,  king  of  Egypt,  29,  34, 

45- 
Messianic      ideal,       105,       109  ff., 

258  ff. 
Micah,  65,  94,  106 
Michael,  183,  188 
Mishna,  154 
Moloch  (Melek),  116 
Moore,   G.  F.,  21,  96,   116 
Monotheism,    94  f,    97,    123  f, 


;88 


INDEX 


Moses,   56  ff. ;   experience  of  Yah- 

weh,   62 
Moth,  or  Maweth,  54 
Moulton,  J.  H.,  194,  245 
Miiller,  F.  Max,  215 
Mil  Her,  W.  Max,  28 

Naphtali,  tribe  of,  33 
Naville,  E.,  45 
Nebuchadnezzar,    122  ff.,  264 
Nehemiah,  135  f.,  137,  138 
Nicanor's  day,  150 

Oesterley,  W.  O.  E.,  103,  104 

Passover,    feast    of    yeaning-time, 

12,  79 
Paton,  L.  B.,  29,  41,  46  ff.,  51,  55, 

240,  246 
Paul,  the  Apostle,  276 
P  Document,  25,  41,  134  f. 
Peake,  A.  S.,  233 
Penuel,   188 
Peters,   J.   P.,   41,   55,   74,   92,    93, 

140,    157,   215 
Petrie,  W.  M.  F.,  42 
Pharisees,   153  ff.,   257  ff. 
Philo  Judaeus,  270,  278  ff. 
Pillars,  8,  61,   117 
Pinches,  T.  G.,  95 
Priesthood,    160,   161  f.,    163  f. 
Priestly  code,  137,  141;  in  psalter, 

142  ff. 
Priests,  wealthy,  162  f. 
Prophecy,   15  f.,  83  f.,  146 
Prophets,  83  f. 
Proselytism,  273  ff. 
Proverbs,   religion   of,  224  ff. 
Psalms,    imprecatory,    201  f.;    na- 
ture-psalms,   203  f. ;    or    Korah, 

206  f. 
Psalter,  20,  139,  143,  151;  growth 

of,  197  f.;   religion  of  196  ff, 
Purim,  150 


Rachel  tribes,  27  ;  in  Egypt,  29  f . ; 
entry  into  Palestine,  51,  56  f., 
71  ff. 

Rahab,   185 

Ramses  II,  45 

Reform  of  Josiah,   119  f. 

Refuge,  cities  of,  118 

Religion,  Semitic  background  of, 
2ff. ;  ceremonial,  16  f.;  pre- 
Mosaic,  52  ff. 

Resurrection,  257 

Revelation,  i 

Revelation,  book  of,  250 

Revenge,  13  f. 

Righteousness,  consciousness  of, 
204  f . 

Ritual,  denounced,  97 ;  develop- 
ment of,  168  f. 

Rogers,  R.  W.,  41,  106,  113 

Ruth,  religion  of,  235  ff. 

Sabbath  laws,  154  ff. 

Sacrifice,  10  ff.;  theories  of,  11; 
human,  12  f.,  82  f.,  ii6f. ;  de- 
nounced, 97  f.;  psalmists'  views 
of,  208  ff. ;   a  broken  spirit,  214 

Sachau,   E.,   136 

Sadducees,  153  f.,  257 

Samaritans,  138  f. 

Samuel  as  seer,  85;  as  priest,  161 

Sargon,   264 

Satan,   i8o  ff.,   186,   192,  231 

Sayce,  A.  H.,  268 

Schrader,  E.,  34,  35 

Schiirer,  E.,  274 

Sennacherib,    106  ff. 

Semites,  2  ff. ;  kindred  to  Hamites, 
ibid.,  animistic  culture  of,  4; 
matriarchal  organization  of,  5 

Septuagint,  272  ff. 

Seraphim,  178 

Serpent  of  Eden,  231;  worship, 
112 

Servant  of  Yahweh,  i3of. 

Shaddai,  54 


INDEX 


289 


Shammai,   154,   156 

Sheditn,  179,   184 

Sheol,   255 

Shrines  of  Yahweh,  75  f. 

Sibylline   oracles,   250,   273  ff. 

Simon    Maccabasus,    i5of. 

Sin,  origin  of,  190  f.,  231,  254;  in 

the  heart,  214 
Sinai,   47  f.,    58 
Sirach,  son  of,  229  f. 
Smith,  G.  A.,  93,  io8,  113 
Smith,  H.  P.,  74,  93,  126 
Smith,  J.  M.  P.,  96,  99,  113,  "6 
Smith,   W.  R.,   5,   11,    17,  27,  77, 

171,  172 
Solomon,  86,  217;  wisdom  of,  230 
Somaliland,   3 
Son   of  Man,   in   Daniel,   256;    in 

Enoch,     258;     as    employed    by 

Jesus,  260 
Steindorf,   G.,   95 
Synagogue,   147  ff. 

Talmud,   156 

Tiammuz,   6 

Temple,  at  Shiloh,  85;  of  Solo- 
mon, 86  f.;  at  Elephantine, 
267  ff.;    at   Leontopolis,    269 

Thatcher,  O.,  283 

Tiglath-pileser    IV,    264 

Tobit,  book  of,  270;  religion  of, 
244  ff. 

Torrey,  C.  C,  21 


Toy,  C.  H.,  9,  58,  73, 
Traditions,  classification  of,  21  ff. 

Uriel,    188 

Van  Dyke,  H.,  196 

Wellhausen,   J.,   116 
Wildeboer,  D.  G.,  256 
Winckler,  H.,  19,  36,  106 
Wisdom,     Hebrew     meaning     of, 

2l6f. 

Wisdom     literature,     religion     of, 

2l6ff. 

Wisdom   of   Solomon,   277  ff. ;    re- 
ligion of,  230 
Word  of  God,  231  f. 

Yahweh,  44;  covenant  with  Is- 
rael, 56  ff.;  Kenite  god,  58  ff.; 
of  North  Arabia,  59 ;  God  of 
fertility,  60,  81;  of  weather,  60; 
of  war,  61;  agricultural,  75; 
connected  with  soil,  78;  jealous 
God,  67  f. ;  the  one  God,  94  f. ; 
angel  of,   173  ff. 

Zadok,   162 

Zecheriah,  132 

Zecheriah,  Second,   146 

Zephaniah,   121 

Zerubbabel,   131,  132,  133,  165 

Zimmern,  H.,  19,  36 


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'"  CONTENTS 
Introduction. 

1.  The  Chassidim. 

2.  Nachman  Krochmal  and  the  "Perplexities  of  the  Time**- 

3.  Rabbi  Elijah  Wilna,  Gaon. 

4.  Nachmanides. 

5.  A  Jewish  Boswell. 

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erature. 

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Index. 


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